On the bumpy flight to Rome I read The Bible all the
way. The passenger on my left - a wiry businesswoman
from Wisconsin - found this disconcerting. As the
turbulence worsened and I moved from Jude to Revelation,
she hissed at me, "Do you have to?" "It's only
background reading," I murmured. She grimaced. "What
for?" I turned to her and whispered: "I'm going to meet
the exorcist." "Oh Christ," she gasped, as the plane
lurched and hot coffee spilled over us.
Father Gabriele Amorth is indeed the exorcist, the most
senior and respected member of his calling. A priest for
50 years, he is the undisputed leader of the city's six
exorcists (appointed by the cardinal to whom the Pope
delegates the office of Vicar of Rome) and honorary
president-for-life of the *International Association of
Exorcists*. He is 75, small, spry, humorous, and
wonderfully direct.
"I speak with the Devil every day," he says, grinning
like a benevolent gargoyle. "I talk to him in Latin. He
answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day
in day out, for 14 years."
On cue (God is not worried by clichés) a shaft of
October sunlight falls across Father Amorth's pale,
round face. We are sitting at a table by the window in a
small high-ceilinged meeting room at his Rome
headquarters, the offices of the Society of St Paul.
Father Amorth has come to exorcism late in life, but
with impressive credentials. Born in 1925 in Modena,
northern Italy, the son and grandson of lawyers (his
brother is a judge), Gabriele Amorth, in his late teens,
joined the Italian resistance.
Immediately after the war, he became a member of the
fledgling Christian Democratic Party. Giulo Andreotti
was president of the Young Christian Democrats, Amorth
was his deputy. Andreotti went into politics and was
seven times prime minister. Amorth, having studied law
at university, went into the Church.
"From the age of 15," be says, "I knew it was my true
vocation. My speciality was the Madonna. For many years
I edited the magazine */Madre di Deo /*(Mother of God).
When I hear people say, 'You Catholics honour Mary too
much,' I reply, 'We are never able to honour her
enough.'
"I knew nothing of exorcism - I had given it no thought
- until June 6, 1986 when Cardinal Poletti, the then
Vicar of Rome, asked to see me. There was a famous
exorcist in Rome then, the only one, Father Candido, but
he was not well, and Cardinal Poletti told me I was to
be his assistant. I learnt everything from Father
Candido. He was my great master. Quickly I realised how
much work there was to be done and how few exorcists
there were to do it. From that day, I dropped everything
and dedicated myself entirely to exorcism."
Father Amorth smiles continually as he tells his story.
His enthusiasm for his subject is infectious and
engaging. "Jesus performed exorcisms. He cast out
demons. He freed souls from demonic possession and from
Him the Church has received the power and office of
exorcism. A simple exorcism is performed at every
baptism, but major exorcism can be performed only by a
priest licensed by the bishop. I have performed over
50,000 exorcisms. Sometimes it takes a few minutes,
sometimes many hours. It is hard work */multo duro/*."
How does he recognise someone possessed by evil spirits?
"It is not easy. There are many grades of possession.
The Devil does not like to be seen, so there are people
who are possessed who manage to conceal it. There are
other cases where the person possessed is in acute
physical pain, such agony that they cannot move.
"It is essential not to confuse demonic possession with
ordinary illness. The symptoms of possession often
include violent headaches and stomach cramps, but you
must always go to the doctor before you go to the
exorcist. I have people come to me who are not possessed
at all. They are suffering from epilepsy or
schizophrenia or other mental problems. Of the thousands
of patients I have seen, only a hundred or so have been
truly possessed."
"How can you tell?"
"By their aversion to the sacrament and all things
sacred. If blessed they become furious. If confronted
with the crucifix, they are subdued." "But couldn't an
hysteric imitate the symptoms?"
"We can sort out the phoney ones. We look into their
eyes. As part of the exorcism, at specific times during
the prayers, holding two fingers on the patient's eyes
we raise the eyelids. Almost always, in cases of evil
presence, the eyes look completely white. Even with the
help of both hands, we can barely discern whether the
pupils are towards the top or the bottom of the eye. If
the pupils are looking up, the demons in possession are
scorpions. If looking down, they are serpents."
As I report this now, it sounds absurd. As Father Amorth
told it to me, it felt entirely credible.
I had gone to Rome expecting - hoping, even - for a
chilling encounter, but instead of a sinister bug-eyed
obsessive lurking in the shadows of a Hammer Horror film
set, here I was sitting in an airy room facing a kindly
old man with an uncanny knack for making the truly
bizarre seem wholly rational. He has God on his side and
customers at his door. The demand for exorcism is
growing as never before. Fifteen years ago there were 20
church-appointed exorcists in Italy. Now there are 300.
I ask Father Amorph to describe the ritual of exorcism.
"Ideally, the exorcist needs another priest to help him
and a group nearby who will assist through prayer. The
ritual does not specify the stance of the exorcist. Some
stand, some sit. The ritual says only that, beginning
with the words */Ecce crucem Domini/* ('*Behold the
Cross of the Lord*') the priest should touch the neck of
the possessed one with the hem of his stole and hold his
hand on his head. The demons will want to hide. Our task
is to expose them, and then expel them. There are many
ways to goad them into showing themselves. Although the
ritual does not mention this, experience has taught us
that using oil and holy water and salt can be very
effective.
"Demons are wary of talking and must be forced to speak.
When demons are voluntarily chatty it's a trick to
distract the exorcist. We must never ask useless
questions out of curiosity. We but must interrogate with
care. We always begin by asking for the demon's name."
"And does he answer?" I ask. Father Amorth nods. "Yes,
through the patient, but in a strange, unnatural voice.
If it is the Devil himself, he says 'I am Satan, or
Lucifer, or Beelzebub. We ask if he is alone or if there
are others with him. Usually there are two or five, 20
or 30. We must quantify the number. We ask when and how
they entered that particular body. We find out whether
their presence is due to a spell and the specifics of
that spell.
"During the exorcism the evil may emerge in slow stages
or with sudden explosions. He does not want show
himself. He will be angry and he is strong. During one
exorcism I saw a child of 11 held down by four strong
men. The child threw the men aside with ease. I was
there when a boy of 10 lifted a huge, heavy table.
"Afterwards I felt the muscles in the boy's arms. He
could not have done it on his own. He had the strength
of the Devil inside him.
"No two cases are the same. Some patients have to be
tied down on a bed. They spit. They vomit. At first the
demon will try to demoralise the exorcist, then he will
try to terrify him, saying, 'Tonight I'm going to put a
serpent between your sheets. Tomorrow I'm going to eat
your heart'."
I lean towards Father Amorth. "And are you sometimes
frightened?" I ask. He looks incredulous. "*Never. I
have faith. I laugh at the demon and say to him, 'I've
got the Madonna on my side. I am called Gabriel. Go
fight the Archangel Gabriel if you will.' That usually
shuts them up.*"
Now he leans towards me and taps my hand confidentially.
"The secret is to find your demon's weak spot. Some
demons cannot bear to have the Sign of the Cross traced
with a stole on an aching part of the body; some cannot
stand a puff of breath on the face; others resist with
all their strength against blessing with holy water.
"Relief for the patient is always possible, but to
completely rid a person of his demons can take many
exorcisms over many years. For a demon to leave a body
and go back to hell means to die forever and to lose any
ability to molest people in the future. He expresses his
desperation saying: 'I am dying, I am dying. You are
killing me; you have won. All priests are murderers'."
How do people come to be possessed by demons in the
first place? "I believe God sometimes singles out
certain souls for a special test of spiritual endurance,
but more often people lay themselves open to possession
by dabbling with black magic. Some are entrapped by a
satanic cult. Others are the victims of a curse."
I interrupt. "You mean like Yasser Arafat saying to Ehud
Barak, 'Go to Hell' and meaning it?"
"No." Father Amorth gives me a withering look. "That is
merely a sudden imprecation. It is very difficult to
perform a curse. You need to be a priest of Satan to do
it properly. Of course, just as you can hire a killer if
you need one, you can hire a male witch to utter a curse
on your behalf. Most witches are frauds, but I am afraid
some authentic ones do exist."
Father Amorth shakes his head and sighs at the
wickedness of the world. At the outset he has told me he
is confident he will have an answer to all my questions,
but he has a difficulty with the next one. "Why do many
more women seem to become possessed than men?"
"Ah, that we do not know. They may be more vulnerable
because, as a rule, more women than men are interested
in the occult. Or it may be the Devil's way of getting
at men, just as he got to Adam through Eve. What we do
know is that the problem is getting worse. The Devil is
gaining ground. We are living in an age when faith is
diminishing. If you abandon God, the Devil will take his
place.
"All faiths, all cultures, have exorcists, but only
Christianity has the true force to exorcise through
Christ's example and authority. We need many more
exorcists, but the bishops won't appoint them. In many
countries - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain there
are no Catholic exorcists. It is a scandal. In England
there are more Anglican exorcists than Catholic ones."
Although the post of exorcist is an official diocesan
appointment (there are about 300 attached to the various
bishops throughout Italy) and Father Amorth is
undisputably the best known in his field, there is some
tension between Amorth and the modernising tendencies in
the Church hierarchy.
Devil-hunting is not fashionable in senior church
circles. The Catholic establishment is happier talking
about "*the spirit of evil*" than evil spirits. The
Vatican recently issued a new rite of exorcism which has
not met with Father Amorth's approval. "They say we
cannot perform an exorcism unless we know for certain
that the Evil One is present. That is ridiculous. It is
only through exorcism that the demons reveal themselves.
An unnecessary exorcism never hurt anybody."
What does the Pope make of all this? "The Holy Father
knows that the Devil is still alive and active in the
world. He has performed exorcism. In 1982, he performed
a solemn exorcism on a girl from Spoletto. She screamed
and rolled on the floor. Those who saw it were very
frightened. The Pope brought her temporary freedom.
"The other day, on September 6, at his weekly audience
at St Peter's, a young woman from a village near Monza
started to shriek as the Pope was about to bless her.
She shouted obscenities at him in a strange voice. The
Pope blessed her and brought her relief, but the Devil
is still in her. She is exorcised each week in Milan and
she is now coming to me once a month. It may take a long
time to help her, but we must try. The work of the
exorcists is to relieve suffering, to free souls from
torment, to bring us closer to God."
Father Amorth has laughed and smiled a good deal during
our three-hour discussion. He has pulled sundry rude
faces to indicate his contempt for the pusillanimous
bishops who have a monopoly on exorcism and refuse to
license more practitioners. In his mouth it does not
seem like mumbo-jumbo or hocus-pocus. He produces
detailed case histories. He quotes scriptural chapter
and verse to justify his actions. And he has a large
following. His book, */An Exorcist Tells his Story/*,
has been reprinted in Italy 17 times.
Given his shining faith and scholarly approach, I hardly
dare ask him whether he has seen the notorious 1973
horror film, */The Exorcist/*. It turns out to be his
favourite film. "Of course, the special effects are
exaggerated. but it is a good film, and substantially
exact, based on a respectable novel which mirrored a
true story."
The film is held to be so disturbing it has never been
shown [until recently] on British terrestrial television
and until last year could not even be rented from video
shops. None the less, Father Amorth recommends it.
"*People need to know what we do*."
And what about hallowe'en? The American tradition has
made no inroads in Italy. "Here it is on Christmas Eve
that the Satanists have their orgies. "Nothing happens
on October 31. But if English and American children like
to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the
year, that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there
is no harm."
It is time to go to the chapel where our photographer is
waiting. Father Atnorth, used to the ways of the press,
raises an eyebrow at us indulgently as he realises the
photograph is designed to heighten the drama of his
calling. Pictures taken, he potters off to find me of
one ot his books.
"What do make of him?'' asks the photographer. "Is he
mad?"
"I don't think so,'' I say. The award-winning */Daily/*
and */Sunday Telegraph/* Rome correspondent, who has
acted as interpreter for the interview, and is both a
lapsed Catholic and a hardened hack, is more empathic:
"There's not a trace of the charlatan about him. He is
quite sane and utterly convincing."
Surprised at myself I add: "He seems to me to be a power
for good in the world." With a smirk, the photographer
loads his gear into the back of the taxi. ''So he's
Peter Cushing then, not Christopher Lee," he says.
Father Amorth reappears with his book and smiles.
"*Remember, when we jeer at the Devil and tell ourselves
that he does not exist, that is when he is happiest*." |
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