Fr Gabriele
Amorth’s very first exorcism remained especially impressed in his mind. He
spoke of it in various interviews and in his book The Last Exorcist: My Battle against Satan, in
which he narrates in depth what happened with so many other important
exorcisms. (Fr Amorth was an exorcist
of the Diocese of Rome who performed thousands of exorcisms over his sixty plus
years as a Catholic Priest).
His
first solo exorcism was very particular, because he immediately clashed with
Satan himself. After having assisted Father Candido Amantini for many years,
he exorcised a simple man. The man was very young and slim and came accompanied
by a priest and a third person, a translator.
Initially,
Father Amorth did not understand the reason for the translator, so the priest
explained to him that when the demoniac was under possession, he spoke in
English, and therefore it would be useful to have the translator present in
order to understand what he was saying.
Once
the exorcism began, the young peasant did not communicate with words or
gestures; it was as if nothing affected him, not even when Father Amorth
invoked the help of the Lord. But after the invocation, when the exorcist
priest asked specifically for the help of Jesus, the young man fixed his gaze
on him and began to yell in English.
His curses and threats were aimed solely at the
exorcist; then he began spitting at him and preparing to attack him physically;
only when Father Amorth arrived at the prayer Praecipio tibi (I command you), did the
demon seem to placate himself a bit. But then, screaming and howling, the demon
burst forth and looked straight at him, drooling saliva from the young man’s
mouth. The exorcist, at that point, continued with the rite of liberation,
asking and ordering the demon to tell him his name and reveal who he was.
Because this was his first exorcism,
Father
Amorth did not expect to receive such a terrifying response: “I am Lucifer.”
Thus, with great stupor, Father Amorth discovered
that who he had in front of him in those moments was Lucifer in person, but at
that point, he certainly could not give up or end the exorcism, so he engaged
himself even more. He was convinced that he had to keep going as long as he had
the strength.
So,
while he continued with the prayers of liberation, the demon resumed his
shrieks, making the possessed turn his head back and his eyes roll; and he
remained like this with his back arched for a quarter of an hour. Who could
imagine what Father Amorth felt in those moments? Changes also occurred in the
environment. All of a sudden, the room became extremely cold and ice crystals
formed on the windows and the walls. The exorcist, refusing to give up,
ordered Lucifer to abandon the peasant. But almost in response, the young man’s
body stiffened so much that he became hard and at a certain point began to
levitate; and for several minutes, he remained hovering three feet in the air.
Meanwhile, the exorcist continued with the prayers of liberation. Then, at a
certain point, the possessed fell down onto a chair, and a little before
disappearing, Lucifer announced the day and the exact hour that he would leave the
body of the peasant.
Father
Amorth continued to exorcise the young man each week until the fatal day
arrived. Then he let another week pass, and he rescheduled him. Upon his
arrival, the young man seemed very tranquil, and in the course of the exorcism,
he did not make any objections to the liberations, and indeed, he prayed
tranquilly. Father Amorth asked him to explain how Lucifer left him, and he
replied that on the day and at the hour that the devil had indicated he would
leave, he began to howl like never before. Then, at the end of this, he felt
new and light.
Father
Amorth Speaks of the Good Angels
Since
exorcism must also be understood in the context of the good angels, Father
Amorth wrote one of his columns in the weekly Credo on the
good angels:
The
angelic creatures who chose to remain faithful to their nature and to the goal
for which they were created — that is, to praise God eternally — did a very
simple thing: they remained obedient. They accepted being submissive to God the
Creator, and they made their choice in the just view, not the diabolical view
of feeling humiliated by this act of submission. To the contrary, in choosing
to remain faithful to God, the angels were true to their nature and their end.
It was an act of fidelity to the truth for which they were created by God,
which is to love Him. This attitude does not humiliate them, because it does
not infer a lack of something; rather, it reflects a fullness.
The angels have
continued to be faithful to their nature, which refers them directly to God the
Creator, the one who has inscribed in creation the laws that He considers best
for the good of the creature. Thus, the way we read it in the book of
Revelation (12:7 and further on) is the way it occurred. There was a giant war
between the angels who remained faithful to God and those who rebelled against
Him; in other words, the [good] angels against the demons. In those passages,
the Bible tells us that the Archangel Michael led the angels into battle, and
the rebel angels were guided by the dragon (the devil) and at the end were
defeated. As a result, and I cite from memory, “for them there was no longer a
place in heaven.”
Something
happened here that the Bible does not declare, but that I have no reason to
doubt: the demons created hell — that is, they put themselves in a situation,
in a state, that placed them in opposition to God, and in doing so, harmed
themselves. Their new condition, known in the Bible as “hell,” means that the
devils are forever excluded from paradise — that is, the vision of God, and the
goals of enjoyment and eternal happiness for which they were created.
Therefore, the demons are definitively condemned;
for them, there is no longer any possibility of salvation. Why? Because their
intelligence, which is much superior to ours, since they are pure spirits,
makes their choice definitive, because it was done with full awareness and is
therefore not retractable. But the demons do not wish to take back such a
choice.
The
same is true, but to the contrary, for the angels who have chosen God and enjoy
Him in eternity; and it is also true for the saints, those who are already
admitted to the eternal vision of God. And this is true also for us, who are
called to sanctity here on earth and, if necessary, in purgatory.
How the Demon Enters
Souls
The
journalist Marco Tosatti asked Father Amorth which are the paths preferred by
the devil when entering the soul of men. Amorth responded:
There
are four methods the demon utilizes to enter souls; one regards saints, and two
are extremely rare. When the demon tempts a person who seems holy, he attempts
to make him renounce his godly ways. This case is extremely rare. The other
extremely rare case is that of leading a person into a complex of extremely
serious sins in a way that is nearly irreversible. In my view, this was the
method [that Satan used] with Judas Iscariot. . . . The most frequent case —
and I put it at 90 percent — is that of the evil spell. It happens when someone
sustains an evil caused by the demon that has been provoked by some person who has
turned to Satan or someone who has acted with satanic perfidy.
The remaining,
10 to 15 percent — I do not have an exact number — regard persons who have
participated in occult practices, such as séances or satanic sects, or have
contacted wizards and fortune-tellers. These forms of Satanism are widely
diffused, and I think that today they are spread by stars and celebrities who
have a huge following… I have nothing against rock music; it is very
respectable music; I am against satanic rock.
-- Fr Marcello Stanzione
Published in www.catholicexchange.com
This article is adapted from Fr. Stanzione’s
introduction to a chapter in The Devil is Afraid of Me: The Life and Work of the
World’s Most Popular Exorcist. It is available as an
ebook or paperback from Sophia Institute Press.
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