An Exorcist Explains the Demonic

by Gabriele Amorth

  Regarding this, I recall a family that, in a brief time, went to rack and ruin: the father, a businessman, lost all his orders due to some strange circumstances; a daughter was left with children by her husband and the other daughter by her fiancé shortly before the wedding; and at home there were strange noises. With a Mass, an exorcism in their home, and a benediction on the members of that family, the disturbances disappeared.

  One of the most glaring cases I ever had is that of Lucia and Francesco, a couple from Northern Italy who came to interview me. Nearly casually, during the encounter we discovered that the husband was possessed by a demon. We managed to liberate him in a brief time, but then the daughter soon manifested problems; and then the same thing, although less seriously, occurred to Lucia and to the second child. For the manner in which they were hammered and the courage they demonstrated in relating their story in a book, which I highly recommend,22 it seems to me to be an emblematic case of how to confront a spiritual battle with the demon: with everyone united, in spite of all the difficulties — and for them there were many (and there still are!) — and with much prayer.

  Finally, I would like to give two simple recommendations to young married couples. The first is to develop immediately the habit of praying together. This will lead to greater harmony and will keep away many evils. The second is to extend this good habit to your children and bring them to church — even when they are little and even if they cry and run around the church. One is educated in the church through osmosis. They will be grateful when they are grown, and so will you. And one must not omit — even if it is difficult — the desire of pardon toward the one who has acted wickedly against him.

  16 Gaudium et Spes, no. 37.

  17 “Almost always in cases of evil presence, the eyes look completely white; we can barely discern, even with the help of both hands, whether the pupils are toward the top or the bottom of the eye. The position of the pupils indicates the type of demons and troubles that are present. During questioning, we could always classify the types of demons according to a distinction inspired by chapter 9 of the book of Revelation.” Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story, 78–79.

  18 “The Bible does not menion any exorcism of houses, but experience demonstrates that in certain instances this is necessary and fruitful. It is true that, at the end of the exorcism of Leo XIII, we ask a blessing for the place where these prayers are recited, but the prayer itself is an invocation for God’s protection over the Church against the evil spirits, with no mention of places.” Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story, 123.

  19 See chapter 3.

  20 See Francesco Vaiasuso and Paolo Rodari, La mia possessione. Come mi sono liberato da 27 legioni di demoni (Milan: Piemme, 2013).

  21 See the website: www.famigliadellaluce.it.

  22 Lucia e Francesco, A tu per tu con il diavolo. Una famiglia perseguitata dal Maligno (San Paolo: Cinisello B., 2009).

  Body to Body with Satan: The Exorcism

  The First Step: Dealing with the Doubters

  When dealing with the extraordinary manifestations of Satan — possession, vexation, obsession, and infestation — who is qualified to verify the existence of the evil spells? It is necessary to be very prudent when discerning if one is dealing with a problem that has an evil origin. As I have said, once it is ascertained that it does not involve a pathology of a psychiatric nature, it is appropriate to turn to a priest, possibly one prepared in this matter. Also groups of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal can be of great help in this first phase of evaluation. If guided by qualified persons gifted with good sense, they can help to make detections through charismatic public prayer.

  Regarding the priests, my confreres: What attitude must they demonstrate toward a person who says he is suffering from a spiritual evil? By the nature of his ministry, the ordained minister reflects qualities of acceptance, listening, and consolation. If we think of the persons the Lord encountered, we see how many asked to be accepted and listened to and only then to be cured. We think of the blind man cured at Bethsaida whom we find in the Gospel of Mark (see Mark 8:22–26). Jesus took him by his hand, making him feel His closeness and His love. Then he cured him. He does the same with the demoniacs: when He meets these persons who are suffering in the spirit, He frees them, giving a concrete sign that the Kingdom of God He announced at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 1:15) has arrived with its work: the ousting of Satan. It is the paternal experience of God that touches each man and each woman; and each priest is called to do the same: to accept everyone, to listen, and to console.

  Counseling the doubtful — and among these the persons who feel that they are affected by a diabolical possession or by another spiritual evil — is one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy to which each Christian is called. The desire to be touched by God, above all when one is suffering, indicates the desire to be visited by Him. And God responds quickly to the one who is moved by this longing. The desire that we feel toward God is our way of expressing our need for a relationship with the One who consoles us, curing us and revealing to us the sense of our existence. Living for God and with God is the mystery that He will reveal to us in its fullness only on the last day. We priests are asked, through our preaching, to communicate this mystery, but at the same time, assisted by a life fortified by prayer, we are asked to listen and to console; and at the end of our days, all the good that has passed through our hands, our eyes, and our mouth will be revealed to us.

  Naturally this is also valid for the exorcist, who has the task of accepting and curing the brothers and sisters who are affected by spiritual evils. He must be a counselor who is always aware and willing to welcome the most disparate cases. In fact, it often happens that the persons who turn to him are truly desperate and no longer know which way to turn. Therefore, his first task is to verify each case with expertise and prudence. Only after he carries out this ministry of acceptance, consolation, and reassurance will he be able to ascertain the real presence of the evil and proceed with the exorcism.

  I frequently encounter persons who are desperately seeking verification of a possession so that they may liberate themselves from an uncertainty that troubles them and begin a cure immediately. They are persuaded that they are demoniac, but often it is not so. Therefore, in order not to cause misunderstandings with these persons and with those in general whom I do not know, I speak of benedictions rather than exorcisms, and of negativity rather than of possession. Precisely for this reason either I begin with the introductory prayers of the exorcism provided in the Ritual or with the Ritual’s blessing for the sick. If then I am convinced that it is an authentic demonic activity I proceed to the next step.

  The Exorcism and Its Origin

  Having ascertained that a person may by experiencing the effects of an evil spell, the Church employs a specific instrument to combat it: the exorcism. Here is how the Catechism speaks of it: “Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus entrusted to his Church” (no. 1673). In exorcism the Church asks publicly and with authority — the authority that comes from Christ to her — that a person or an object be liberated from the devil’s influence. In practice, it is a special prayer of deliverance, reserved to the bishop and to the priests whom he delegates as prescribed by the Ritual of Exorcisms and Prayers for Particular Circumstances.23 During the rite the devil is ordered, in the name of Christ, to abandon his influence on the body of the person. In the case of a local exorcism, that is, an exorcism made on a locality, the spirit is ordered to suspend each evil influence on the [place]. It is, however, always the Holy Spirit who liberates.

  It is important to note that exorcism is included among the sacramentals, which, according to the Catechism, are: “Sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to recive the chief effects of the sacrament
s, and various occasions in life are rendered holy” (no. 1667).24 They are in effect spiritual aids, similar to but not as strong as the seven sacraments and almost extensions of them. Other than exorcisms, sacramentals include: benedictions or blessings; prayers; blessed water, salt, and oil; the Sign of the Cross; sacred images; and many other blessed objects.

  Returning to exorcism: the only one authorized to perform an exorcism is an exorcist, that is, a priest delegated by the bishop of the locality, who possesses, by divine mandate, the power to cast out demons and, as such, is the principal exorcist of his diocese. According to the new ritual, the exorcist, who is nominated by the ordinary — that is, by the bishop — must “be knowledgeable, prudent and upright, qualities suitable to the ministry that he is expressively authorized to exercise.”

  On this point, in order to clarify the discourse, it is appropriate to add some historical notes. It is interesting to observe that, from the beginning, human cultures have been convinced that there exists a god of good and a god of evil and that there are evil forces that lay traps for man to such a point that, in some cases, they take actual possession of him. Therefore, the possession that is known within Christianity is a phenomenology that is known to practically all ancient cultures. Furthermore, we can consider the ancient rituals of protection from evil the precursors of the prayer of exorcism not yet illuminated by the truth of Christ. These concern the early exorcistical practices of the wizards, who were armed with a long oral tradition of ancestral rites, which they used in order to defend themselves from negative forces.

  A qualitative leap occurred with the Jewish people when it became clear through divine revelation that only one God exists: Yahweh. The Acts of the Apostles (see 19:13–14), for example, speaks of some itinerant exorcists, sons of the high priest Sceva (and therefore Jewish), who helped themselves to Jesus’ name, after having verified that it was more efficacious in casting out demons than their traditional formulas. The fact that exorcists existed at that time is affirmed by Jesus. Having been accused by some Jews of driving out demons in the name of Beelzebub, Jesus asks them: “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?” (Luke 11:19). Those sons evidently were Jewish exorcists. Jesus, however, did not avail Himself of the traditional rituals of His people; rather, He drove out demons based solely on the power of His Word. He, in fact, is the great Exorcist of human history.

  Jesus, the Son of God before whom the demons give no resistance, then conferred on the twelve apostles, on the seventy-two disciples, on us, and on all believers in Him the power of driving out demons using the power of His name (Matt. 10:1; Luke 10:17; Mark 16:17). There are numerous attestations of the Fathers of the Church in the first three centuries that speak of the disciples of the Lord who cast out demons, placing their hands on the obsessed, without need of particular authorization of the bishop. This mission also had a clear apologetic value since it brought pagans into the Church. Among the more cited exorcists were monks who, thanks to their ascetic life and sanctity, had a great power over the devil. The Institution of the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Exorcism came into existence in the West only after the beginning of the fourth century (the oriental Churches have always considered exorcism a personal charism conferred on each priest who wished to exercise it), and it was immediately placed under the control of the bishops and by some priests delegated by bishops.

  Slowly, with the appearance of the Sacramentaries — the official liturgical books of the Church — the first formulas of exorcism began to appear. During the Middle Ages, the awareness of this material increased, and the exorcistical rites were developed and multiplied — often in a disorganized way — and then adapted by the various schools. After 1200 the Church was living a type of contradiction: on one side, an extraordinary theology was developing (St. Thomas Aquinas is of this epoch), and on the other, witches were burning at the stake, mostly poor women who were believed to be incarnated by the devil but, if anything (in the great majority of the cases), were simply possessed by a demon and had need of exorcism.

  The rite, which had become too showy, was tidied up and simplified with the Roman Ritual of Paul V (1614), which remained in force up to the promulgation of the Ritual of Exorcisms and Prayers for Particular Circumstances, published in 1998. As I have always declared:25 for more than three centuries, and with serious damage done to those who suffered from spiritual evils, exorcism was practically not practiced; moreover, in the seminaries the subject was practically ignored. The motive, favored by a rationalist mentality, was based on the furious rejection of the witch hunts, the persecutions of heretics, and the religious wars of the past centuries. And so the baby was thrown out with the bath water. Only in the last few years, for various reasons — among which is the growth of the media and their awareness of this material — have things changed a little, but not enough. The situation is much more serious abroad than in Italy.

  The Ritual of Exorcisms and the Prayers for Particular Circumstances, currently in liturgical use, was the last ritual book to have been revised after Vatican II. When it was published, I criticized it publicly. In particular I contested the fact that in order for an exorcism to be performed, it required the confirmation of clear signs indicating a diabolical possession. This is the problem: in order to ascertain the presence of a possession with a certain margin of security, the best diagnostic instrument is the exorcism itself. In brief, without performing the exorcism, it is difficult to determine if there is truly need of it. My practice of many years tells me this, and I have always maintained it. For this reason, I have continued to use Title XII of the old Roman Ritual of 1614, inspired in great part by the prayers written by the theologian Alcuin in the eighth century, entitled De exorcizandis obsessis a daemonio, which also grants the exorcism a diagnostic purpose. Naturally I have received authorization from the bishop [to use it]. Since the publication in 2007 of the motu propio Summorum Pontificum, however, each priest may freely avail himself of the prayers and benedictions of the old Rituale Romanum, and each exorcist may decide whether to avail himself of the new ritual or use the old (that of 1614) in its place. Anyway, after my protests the new ritual was corrected.

  How is exorcism regulated in the other Christian churches? With the Orthodox, it is not difficult to find an exorcist. In Romania, for example, each monastery has one. Just knock on the door and ask; it is a little like what happens going to Confession. In other words, the ministry of exorcism has been peacefully reintroduced into the sacrament of Holy Orders.

  When People Cannot Find an Exorcist

  When people cannot find an exorcist, I advise them to go to a group of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, who will address prayers of deliverance to them. At times, it can be difficult to find a group of this type near one’s residence. In these cases, I proceed with a preliminary discussion with the person and his parents in order to try to understand the symptoms better.

  Again, at times I require that the person be seen first by a psychiatrist in order to ascertain that [his problem] does not involve a mental illness. I say this, even though, through experience, I recognize that at times, the symptoms of the two situations — spiritual illness and psychiatric illness — overlap and mingle and that a complete clarification of the nature of the illness is not always reached. Here a simple principle helps: if the cure bears good fruit, one proceeds and intensifies; if one gets nowhere, it is necessary to think of something else. In 1993, I examined this topic with about forty psychiatrists. The question we tried to answer was how to distinguish a psychiatric illness from a spell. I recall saying that the difference becomes clearer if one thinks of a better cure that can be applied to the patient. A psychic illness is cured with natural means, with drugs and with psychological therapy, that is, with human means. But when one has an illness that originates from a spell, the evil can be cured only through supernatural means: prayer, a sacramental life, exorcisms, benedictions, et cetera. At times, it is appropriate to use a combination of the t
wo therapies.

  As an indirect consequence, a physical disturbance is sometimes added to a spiritual evil: a tumor, a headache, lacerating pains to the limbs, to the stomach, et cetera. It can happen that these pains, as with vexations, can even have negative diagnoses: from the exams there may be nothing verifiably out of place or no physiological evidence. Then, when the exorcisms resume, these illnesses can also go away. These cases involve diabolical vexations, which at times are also very strong and are probably caused by an evil spell. But the discernment is not always easy. One must proceed case by case and with much prayer.

  As for the frequency with which I meet with each person, this cannot be decided presumptively; it depends on each case. Usually I schedule an encounter each month; more often in the more critical cases, if the time and my health permit it. And if the diagnosis is incorrect and there is not any type of spiritual problem? Let us just say that an exorcism does no one any harm.

  I am often asked if I am aware of the success — or not — of my prayer. No, I am not. It is only God who acts through prayer. The exorcist, or the one saying the prayer of liberation, usually is not immediately aware if the person has been liberated. I learn it from the exorcized person some time after the last appointment.

  What Happens During an Exorcism?

  What happens during the exorcism to the person afflicted by the possession? Above all, it is necessary to say that normally a person affected by possession desires to be liberated from the influence of the demon and as a result will ask to be exorcized. A difficulty can arise, as I have mentioned, in approaching the rite. When the person enters the room where the exorcist works, it sometimes happens that he will begin to feel the influence of the spell more intensely and will manifest a nervousness and discomfort, or, in more serious cases, the person will enter into a trance and must be dragged like a dead weight. In cases like this, there must always be a friend or relative or his pastor with him. At the end of the rite, when I reawaken the person, he will often appear defogged, completely in control again, and will be able to say a prayer peacefully and to exchange a few words with me.