The Rev. Gabriele Amorth, age 85, has an unusual job to do at the Vatican. He is the chief Exorcist. While this subject might seem strange for a blog, it is another sign of change that has gone on within the Roman Catholic Church. Back in the day, exorcisms weren’t discussed. The Church barely admitted to performing them. According to CNN.com:
“The devil tempts everyone — people in politics, in economics, in sport. And naturally, he tempts, above all, the religious leaders, so you shouldn’t be surprised if the devil tempts those in the Vatican. That’s his job.”
The Rev. Gabriele Amorth isn’t speaking metaphorically when he says that. The 85-year-old priest means people can be tempted and literally possessed by Satan.
“It’s not my opinion: I’m saying that if you believe in the Gospels, you believe in the existence of the devil, in the devil’s power to possess people,” he said in an interview with CNN.
The faithful believe “that there are people possessed by the devil, and … in the power of exorcism to liberate from the devil,” he said.
And as the Vatican’s chief exorcist, it’s his job to expel the devil when someone is possessed. He’s performed more than 70,000 exorcisms in his career, he estimates.
But there is a difference between possession — where the devil takes hold of someone’s body and actions — and temptation, where Satan lures a person into doing evil, he said.
Father Amorth believes the pedophile priests have been tempted by the devil, not possessed by the devil. He has never performed an exorcism on a pedophile priest. Now the pedophile priest scandal is spreading in Europe in countries like Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, Father Amorth feels that is important to note the difference. He does admit that he has done exorcisms on priests who have been molested by the devil but he does not elaborate on that.
Father Amorth says he sees only good people in the Vatican. Speaking of pedophile priests, he says:
“They don’t need exorcism, they need to be converted, to be converted to God, that’s what they need. They need to confess, they need true penitence, true repentance, that’s what they need. They’re not possessed.”
But no one is too strong a believer to be possessed, Amorth said.
Good for the Catholic Church for finally talking publicly about the ritual of exorcism. Back in the early 70s when William Peter Blatty first wrote The Exorcist, the ritual was shrouded in mystery. The novel was written on an actual case of a possessed boy who lived in Mt. Rainer, Md. Blatty spoke at the time of the difficulty he had doing the research. The Church simply did not release information on this subject.
It seems that now the Church has been forced to discuss the pedophilia that has gone on and exorcisms. Sunlight is probably a good thing. Darn that was a terrifying movie!
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.”
– Thomas Jefferson
The Exorcist was indeed a terrifying movie. On a day off from working at summer camp, some friends of mine originally intended to go see the movie Jaws, which I was up for. It was sold out, and they decided to go see The Exorcist instead. I had a bad feeling about it – but indeed it was very terrifying movie to me at the time (I was 16). Let’s put it this way, I could have skipped seeing it. It gave me nightmares for a probably a week or so!
I have an uneasy feeling about where this thread might go. There seems to be a fascination with all things Catholic here and attempts to expose the aspects that are ripe for pop-culture misinterpretations. “The Exorcist” was a piece of trash that had very little resemblance to reality.
Perhaps I’ll take a bit of a blog break here, because I can feel my defenses rising where they shouldn’t be. Or will the next Moonhowlings movie discussion thread be inappropriately entitled: The Passion of the Christ, anti-Semitism or Truth”?
I actually always thought The Exorcist as a complete work of fiction. In fact, I never knew before today that it was supposedly based on a true story. If so, I bet it was very very loosely based!
Ahhhh yessss….”THE DEVIL MADE ME/THEM DO IT!” excuse.
Brilliant. I guess that covers up the church’s crimes and misgivings since its inception…and Popey Ratz joined he Hitler Jugend because ….the devil made him do it….
Now, while I believe that spiritual oppression and posession are real things (albeit extremely rare), for there is evil in this world, it’s a pretty lame excuse to say…”the devil tempted them and made them do it” nonsense. I guess we couuld all claim the DMMEDI excuse anytime we do something wrong.
You would be correct…
And reading Bubba’s first comment, apparently I was right about the offensive direction this thread would take. Because we all know that all other faiths have squeaky-clean histories, right?
I’ll try back in a week or so.
Good – that confirms what I thought.
Oh grow a tougher skin. The church is hardly innocent in all of this. It seems one of the priests in Germany was abusing kids when Popey Ratz was his bishop…and Ratz knew about the alleged alligations and abuses.
Yeah ALL faiths have blood on their hands (except maybe unitarians). But can you not agree that the “Devil made me/them do it” excuse is beyond the pale? The abusing of children, molesting of children – it’s okay because the devil made those priests do it??? Give me a break.
And FWIW – the exorcism thing doesn’t really bother me. Plenty of protestant denominations perform exorcism regularily in church. A person walks up to the preacher, he lays his hands on them and says “DEBBIL BE GWAN!!!!!! I BESECH THE OH LAWD!!!!!” the person falls back and the preacher claims the person has been exorcised.
The Catholic Church however does NOT do that. They, in a surprising turn of events, look for all scientific explanations of the person’s behavior, possible psychaitric conditions and environmental factors. Only after these have been ruled out and such behavior exists that could not be explained is prersent is a recommendation for an exorcism made…and then a bishop must review and decide if it will happen.
@Emma
I actually thought that ‘good for the church ‘ had a positive meaning.
I thought it was neat that there is a head exorcist.
However, Emma did the right thing. If someone doesn’t like the topic, pass on by.
Emma nailed this one – it was curiously posted on St Patrick’s Day
The story about this guy and the book he wrote was last week.
Who cares what religion he is, he should be in jail. Maybe we should just let all child abuser molesters/scum go to an exorist and that would be sufficent.
Tax-person, surely you are kidding. Posted on St. Patrick’s day? You want to sit up at 2 in the morning and make sure that there are new posts for the blog?
Exorcism has always facinated me, since William Peter Blatty first wrote his book.
I actually agree with a few other posters. As a Catholic this is pretty disrespectful to put out on a day a Saint is celebrated. I know many will disagree but from our vantage point its as if our religion is being openly mocked in front of us on a day we may openly celebrate it.
And, thats my last word on this thread.
The Exorcist was fairly well researched. Blatty changed some things to protect identity. The Church was very circumspect in what information was released in general. I always assumed they didn’t want something very serious sensationalized.
And yes, there are protestant exorcisms from what I have been told. If I needed one though, I have told my family I only want a Catholic one. Not Me is correct. All scientific and medical explanation is ruled out and there must be approval from the heirarchy before any exorcisms are performed in the Catholic Church. An exorcism is definitely not a part of the church of what’s happening now in this case.
It is definitely an interesting subject, but I would go with “terrified me” instead of “fascinated me”. I still can’t force myself to sit through watching the movie “The Exorcist” again – even though it probably is a very inaccurate portrayal of a true exorcism.
I’ve read lots of books on exorcism (it interests me as well). But the case that the movie “the exorcist” has been based on … well, a lot was sensationalized. First off the purportedly posessed was a boy, not a girl. NO head spinning or pea soup spitting. HOwever he did speak in foreign tongues, markings were found on his body, and he was able to perform some forms of psychokenesis that were otherwise unexplainable. He was exorcised in St. Louis however.
Hostage to the Devil is a good book on real exorcism cases of the 20th century.
And for all te outraged Catholics here who think this thread was an insult to St. Patricks Day….Mull that over while you sip on your green beer while multitudes around you are drinking ad nauseum and carrying on as if this were mardi gras the sequel. Get over yourselves. This thread is the LEAST obsccene offensive thing that can happen today.
Actually, no your religion is not being mocked.
Frankly, I don’t think St. Patrick would have liked pedophiles either. Let’s face it, if it weren’t picking about this, it would be picking about something else.
Not me, you are right. He did change the boy to a girl to protect the privacy of the boy. There used to be a companion book, probably written in the late 80’s or 90’s about the research he did before writing his novel. And you are also right, it wasn’t biographical.
I would also like to remind contributors that I have never stated my specific religion on the blog or my religious roots. No one owns Christianity. If there is any disrepect in this post, then it is in your own mind.
Stay tuned.
That’s in interesting comparison about what went on in the movie and what apparently happened in real life. Well, the movie wouldn’t have been so scary without the head spinning or pea soup spitting, that’s for sure. And of course I can see why they moved the setting to Georgetown – it is a lot scarier when it seems to have happened right in the nation’s capital. It also makes it a lot scarier that it happened to a young girl than a young boy, too. Typical Hollywood stuff, twist around the facts to make for better story telling!
Denial is no apology. Subborness is not an intellectual conversation. Coorelation is not assurance. Confession is not salvation. Extremism in Defense of Liberty is no vice. Whats good for the gander must be for the goose. The fame of of those who silent dissent is greater than their impact. And you have to believe to fear the need for exorcism.
My father’s grandmother came from County Cork. My husband’s grandmother came from County Tipperary as a child. He is eligible for Irish citizenship.
We are an Irish family. Erin go bragh.
I have an open thread for St. Patrick’s Day in the post list. I didn’t publish it after I saw the tone of the day. Perhaps this afternoon. Other things needed to be said first.
Well, the originally posessed boy (of whom the Exorcist was based upon) was a non-believer and so was his family. Evil does exist (I’ll refrain from adding real-life examples…). It attacks those who do not believe as well as those who are devout. A balance must be kept…so as long as there is pure love and ultimate good, so must there be pure evil and unlimited hate and destruction. Yin Yang…
That being said, and on a very large OT, those who dabble in dark, occult practices seeking to summon evil (for the fun of it, ya know?), to inflict harm or simply for curiosity do not know with what they play. Evil awaits an invitation, it is up to man with free-will to give it.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig!!.
Bubba – did not expect that. Both in real life and in the movie, the parents and kid believed after the fact. Much like the great line in one of the Vampire movies where the guy flashes a cross at Dracula and Dracula covers himself and reals back and then leans forward, smiles and says” you have to believe for that to work.”
Yep, they believed after that. I believe too….though I reject organized religion as a whole. They’ve let the serpent into their houses.
Some believe the world is run amok because of abortion, gays, liberals, conseratives, drugs, obesity, etc. YOu can add a plethora of things to that. I say it’s because people have lost their way, and those in the lead do not have mankind’s best interest at heart. But that’s just me….
Nonetheless, the actions of these priests cannot be ignored because “da debbil tempted me!” With free will, they acted upon their own accord….and repeatedly it is sadly seen.
Belief and faith are one thing, absolute knowledge is a very different standard going into judgement. Rejection in the face of opportunity is a much longer conversation and equally dangerous. My sense is that the kid and his parents have absolute knowledge as does the Rev. Gabriele Amorth.
I hear you on organized religion. The problem lies in the weakness of man and the need to place self interest or organizational interest over doctrine. On the other hand the Church of Me, the Church of Modern Politics (which is a subset of the Church of What’s Happenin Now) presents its own dangers in the presentation, adherence to and enforcement of doctrine. Child molestation, is just one of the sins and temptations that disqualify priestly authority. You can and must get angry and sad for the priests and the children involved, but from the Church’s point of view the real danger is to the larger congregation (flock) that has not recieved the sacrament or rights by those priestds still involved but clearly not authorized or eligable to give them. One might argue that the Church’s financial liability is nothing compared to the liability of those leaders at judgement.
This priest is truly remarkable. Several people have commented on seeing an interview with him. Again, the Church is to be commended for allowing him to speak as openly as he has.
Something always bothered me during the height of the sex scandals. What bothered me was this was only an issue in American churches. I found that hard to believe. I think now that perhaps the Americans were more honest.
Sex scandals happen in churches of all denominations. The Catholics certainly don’t have ownership of this problem. When I was a teenager in Charlottesville, a local preacher tried to pick up girls all the time. If we saw pastor XXX coming down the street, everyone locked their car doors. That certainly is as repugnant.
The bottom line is, this was not just an American problem, since it has cropped up in other European countries.
Actually, until this thread – I never even realized there was such a thing as the “Chief Exorcist” in the Vatican. Definitely a very unusual job, to say the least. I’m also amazed at how many exorcisms (70,000!) he has preformed over the course of his career. Even if his career spans many decades (which apparently it does) that’s still an amazing number of exorcisms a year – in fact it seems to work out to much more than one exorcism a day. I guess he’s a busy guy….
I did not know any of that either, Gainesville. No clue. I knew there were not many priests who were allowed to perform exorcisms. That was pretty much the total of my knowledge. 70,000 is a lot of people. Now I am more curious.
Maybe some are far more involved than others.
Popey Ratz was the head of the office of Exorcism before he became pope…
I don’t believe we are judged by anyone at death or in the afterlife, but OURSELVES. We see and feel the pain we have inflicted upon others, we feel the joy we have been given…and the ultimate judgement is whether or not we learned from our mistakes and have grown spiritually, or whether or not we need to repeat the lesson again.
If you do the math – that guy is 85 years old. How long can he possibly have been Chief Exorcist? Let’s be generous and say 40 years. I can’t imagine him having risen to that post before the age of 45. So 70,000 divided by 40 is still 1750. That works out to an average of more than 4 exorcisms a day! I find that to be incredible and hard to believe! I didn’t realize exorcisms took so little time and that there were so many that had to be done each day!
Actually, I just find it all a little hard to believe. The numbers don’t make sense to me at all. As soon as I saw that number – 70,000 – I just thought to myself it didn’t seem to be possible. The more I look at the math, the more I really think it isn’t possible!
As I said earlier, he appears to be a very busy guy!
I didn’t know that either. He has actually become more personable than I would have guessed. He had very large shoes to fill. John Paul II was extremely popular and well loved. He captured the hearts and mind of the world, Catholics, Non-Catholics and even Non-Christians.
It seemed to me John Paul II was a very hard act to follow – I don’t think too many people would have wanted to try to fill his shoes, so to speak.
I have a very mixed impression of the current Pope. Especially as before he became Pope – he really didn’t seem to have a very tolerant view of other religions. However, I haven’t really followed much about him in recent times. I just remember a lot of controversy about him around the time he became Pope – for some of the things he said prior to becoming Pope, in regards to other religions.
70,000 is a large number, but not all that remarkable for a long career. Please read my earlier post. Most exorcisms are performed en masse, and take only a few seconds to a few minutes. The majority of exorcisms are simple blessings or prayers for protection from Satan, not long violent battles over a possessed soul.
And let’s not forget he was a Hitler Youth….
Yes, that’s one of the things I remembered learning about him early on when he became Pope.
I don;t believe or support any of them (popes that is). They’re supposedly the Prince of heaven on Earth, Or the Prince of God’s church….yet they’re elected, not magically placed in the throne.
@Gainesville Resident
Membership in the Hitler youth was mandatory for all boys over age 10. Other youth organizations were forcably absorbed by the Hitler Youth, so many youth joined one organization only to find themselves in another, very different group. Let’s not condemn someone for belonging, because everyone was forced to join and did not have a choice.
Having fun, Bubba?
And is this the same blog that finds the name “Oblamo” disrespectful?
I don’t think people had a choice about becoming a Hitler Youth. I think that was one recruitment you didn’t say NO to.
Emma, what is your point? There is no insult. Bubba is simply saying that she doesn’t believe that there is divine intervention in the placement of popes. That’s fair. Why are you so defensive?
Defend the pope if you want. Don’t deny someone else their point of view.
And saying Oblamo is not the same thing as saying you don’t believe that papal selection is divine intervention. One clearly mimicks. The other is an expression of opinion. Probably half the Catholics don’t believe the papal selection is divine. Don’t expect the rest of the world to.
You think calling the Pope “Popey Ratz” is respectful, Moon? I find that interesting.
I don’t care what Bubba does or doesn’t believe. I just find it interesting how much willingness there is here to tolerate ridicule of the symbols of faith throughout Bubba’s commentary here. Wow.
What would you like me to do to Bubba?
What symbols of faith? I don’t think anyone has ridiculed symbols of faith.
You saw the frigging thread and got pissed off Emma. You could see where it was going I believe were your words. Was it exorcism or pedophilia that you didn’t like us talking about? I thought it was an interesting article.
If she wants to have a nickname for the Pope, I guess that’s up to her. Or, you can tell her you don’t like her nickname for the Pope. Go for it. I have never known you to hold back.