Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican
>From The Times - March 11, 2010
Richard Owen in Rome
[Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in the diocese of Rome poses in Rome,
2005.] Giulio Napolitano, AFP / Getty Images Rev. Gabriele Amorth, who
served as
the Catholic Church's chief exorcist for
25 years, claims the devil has infiltrated
the Vatican.
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that
that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy
See's chief exorcist.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist
for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic
possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included
power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe
in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".
He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by
Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true including
these latest stories of violence and paedophilia."
He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican
"cover-up" over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then
commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a
Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. "They covered up everything
immediately," he said. "Here one sees the rot".
A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay
had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself
after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay's relatives have
challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual
background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who
was never identfied.
Father Amorth, who has just published Memoirs of an Exorcist, a series
of interviews with the Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti, said that the
attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been the work of
the Devil, as had an incident last Christmas when a mentally disturbed
woman threw herself at Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Midnight Mass,
pulling him to the ground.
Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that
Father Amorth had "gone well beyond the evidence" in claiming that
Satan had infiltrated the Vatican corridors.
"Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and
seek the glory of God," he said. Some Vatican officials were more pious
than others, "but from there to affirm that some cardinals are members
of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."
Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit,
invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in
the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different
languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he
makes fun of me."
He said it sometimes took six or seven of his assistants to to hold down
a possessed person. Those possessed often yelled and screamed and spat
out nails or pieces of glass, which he kept in a bag. "Anything can
come out of their mouths finger-length pieces of iron, but also
rose petals."
He said that he hoped every diocese would eventually have a resident
exorcist. Under Church Canon Law any priest can perform exorcisms, but
in practice they are carried out by a chosen few trained in the rites.
Father Amorth was ordained in 1954 and became an official exorcist in
1986. In the past he has suggested that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin
were possessed by the Devil. He was among Vatican officials who warned
that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels made a "false distinction
between black and white magic".
He approves, however, of the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although
"exaggerated" offered a "substantially exact" picture of possession.
In 2001 he objected to the introduction of a new version of the exorcism
rite, complaining that it dropped centuries-old prayers and was "a
blunt sword" about which exorcists themselves had not been consulted.
The Vatican said later that he and other exorcists could continue to
use the old ritual.
He is the president of honour of the Association of Exorcists.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7056689.ece
