Vatican’s chief exorcist discusses life’s work
One expert says the Devil is at work in the most unlikely of places: the Vatican. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, sees evidence of satanic infiltration everywhere: in cases of violence and pedophilia involving the church, in the Vatican’s “cover-up” of the murder of a Swiss Guard in 1988, and in “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus.” Amorth should know; he is, after all, the Vatican’s chief exorcist. His recently published book, Memoirs of an Exorcist —a collection of interviews with an Italian journalist—describes his life’s work since becoming an official exorcist in 1986. Amorth claims to have personally treated 70,000 cases of demonic possession. So how can we spot the devil incarnate when he appears? He is a “pure spirit, invisible,” says Amorth. “He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me.” A good illustration may be the 1973 film The Exorcist, which Amorth describes as “exaggerated,” but “substantially exact.”