An Exorcist Explains the Demonic Read online

  GABRIELE AMORTH

  The Antics of Satan

  and His Army of Fallen Angels

  Edited by Stefano Stimamiglio

  Translated by Charlotte J. Fasi

  SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS

  Manchester, New Hampshire

  Copyright © 2016 by Edizioni San Paolo

  English translation Copyright © 2016 by Charlotte J. Fasi

  Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

  Cover and interior design by Perceptions Design Studio.

  Cover art: “Cross of St. Benedict” (183365198) © serav / Shutterstock.com; “Concrete wall” (120675925) © Eky Studio / Shutterstock.com

  Biblical references in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

  Quotes from English translations of papal documents and addresses are from the Vatican website (w2.vatican.va) © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Amorth, Gabriele, author.

  Title: An exorcist explains the demonic : the antics of Satan and his army of

  fallen angels / Gabriele Amorth ; edited by Stefano Stimamiglio ;

  translated by Charlotte J. Fasi.

  Other titles: Saremo giudicati dall’amore. English

  Description: Manchester, New Hampshire : Sophia Institute Press, 2016.

  Includes bibliographical references.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016021936 ISBN 9781622823451 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ePub ISBN 9781622823468

  Subjects: LCSH: Devil — Christianity. Catholic Church — Doctrines.

  Classification: LCC BT982 .A4613 2016 DDC 235/.4 — dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021936

  To St. Michael the Archangel

  “The battle against the Devil is the

  principal task of St. Michael the Archangel.

  And [it] is still being fought today.”

  — St. John Paul II, May 24, 1987, during a visit to the

  Sanctuary of St. Michael the Archangel, on Mount

  Gargano, in the province of Foggia, Puglia (Italy)

  St. Michael the Archangel,

  defend us in battle.

  Be our defense against the

  wickedness and snares of the Devil.

  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

  and do thou,

  O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

  by the power of God,

  thrust into hell Satan,

  and all the evil spirits,

  who prowl about the world

  seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

  Contents

  Introduction

  1. The Victory of Christ over Sin and Death

  2. Satan and the Fallen Angels

  3. The Cult of Satan and Its Manifestations

  4. The Extraordinary Action of Satan: Possession, Vexation, Obsession, and Infestation

  5. Body to Body with Satan: The Exorcism

  6. Other Means of Struggling with the Devil

  7. The Principles of Christian Eschatology: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell

  Introduction

  “In the evening of life, we shall be judged on love [alone].”1 With this dazzling expression the great sixteenth-century mystic St. John of the Cross expresses theologically the same mysterious reality that Jesus presented to His disciples shortly before offering His life in redemption for mankind. Portrayed majestically by Matthew in chapter 25 of his Gospel, Jesus tells us that each thing we have done, or have not done, to each of the least of our brothers and sisters, we will have done, or will not have done, to Him (see Matt. 25:31–46). Therefore, the last judgment issued on our life will be based on love. Indeed, we ourselves shall reveal the naked truth of our reality to all when we appear before God’s presence. This is the heart of Christian life: charity, mercy, and acceptance. At the sunset of our life, all that will remain is that particle of love that we have placed in each thing.

  There is, however, another side to this coin: besides being judged on love, we shall also be judged by Love, that is, by God. Pope Francis, in declaring the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, has expressed to all the Church — indeed, to the entire world — that the judgment that awaits us is a judgment of mercy. “Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God, who is always ready to forgive.”2 Each man who seeks repentance and pardon is given the hope that no sin, no situation in life, and no human failure can be excluded from God’s love.

  This message, laden with hope, is one that I intend to propose and to make my own, together with those who, like me, exercise the priestly ministry of exorcism — those who do face-to-face battle with the devil in order to eradicate his extraordinary action from the lives of men. The enemy of the human race, who rebelled against God and who intends to bring all creation to perdition and destruction, also wishes to make us lose the hope of love and joy in each moment of our lives, including the final moment, when through God’s mercy, we shall have restored to us the possibility of redeeming ourselves, after having been separated by original sin from total communion with the Creator. The devil, through his ordinary action, which is temptation, and through his extraordinary action, which is the subject of this book, tries to destroy the confidence of each man and each woman to love and to be loved.

  This book, which I have written with my confrere Don Stefano Stimamiglio, began with the desire to fill hearts with the hope that is based on the rock, the Word of God, that neither rain, nor the overflowing of rivers, nor the blowing of violent winds — nor any other dramatic experience from which we could borrow metaphors — can destroy (see Matt. 7:25). It casts light — and I must say finally — on much-discussed topics in the media in recent times: possession, vexation, obsession, and diabolic infestation.

  The material we present here has been gathered from our interviews in Credere [magazine], published weekly under the title “Dialogues on the Afterlife.” These weekly installments presented in simple language the elementary concepts of the mysterious phenomenology tied to the cult of Satan and its spiritual remedies. Moreover, they placed these concepts in the necessary perspective of the final judgment of God on men and on history — that is, on the illuminating, salvific events and [the life of ] Christ. And so we intend to furnish an essential summary of this topic and to make it accessible to the greater public in all its originality.

  I shall begin with a general explanation of the victory of Christ over sin. Then I shall deal with the Catholic doctrine on the fallen angels; the foundation of Satanism, its cult, and its innumerable mani
festations; its spiritual consequences; and its remedies. I shall conclude with some fundamental elements of Christian eschatology: the Passion of Christ, His descent into the darkening of Satan, and His return in salvific victory — motives of great hope for all, but especially for those who suffer from the heavy consequences of evil spells, those whom I consider my friends and companions along the journey.

  1 St. John of the Cross, Dichos 64.

  2 Misericordia Vultus (Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy), no. 3.

  The Victory of Christ over Sin and Death

  The Incarnation and the Resurrection

  Before entering into the heart of the book, I wish to clarify some fundamental truths regarding our Faith and the complex theme of evil spells. Even before speaking of these evils and their author, the devil, and in order to discourage the temptation of sensationalism, I shall put together two fundamental premises that regard Jesus Christ, the Master, the Savior, and the Liberator.

  The first consideration regards the profound significance of the Incarnation of the Son of God for each man and woman of every era; that is, the birth of Jesus Christ the Savior, born of the Virgin Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit, which occurred one night more than two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, a small and insignificant locality not too far from Jerusalem. It is precisely this event inserted into the history of humanity that gives us great hope. It is necessary to look at that Baby as the Son of God, who was born in the midst of men and women in order to separate them from sin, egoism, death, and the power of the devil. With eyes animated by faith, one can see lying in that poor stable the Prophet waited for by the people — the Messiah, who, through preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God, curing the sick, consoling the derelict, and casting out demons, will reveal, definitively, the merciful face of the Father.

  The birth of Jesus, however, does not say everything; we must refer to the second fundamental moment in the history of the Son of Man: His death and Resurrection, which we celebrate each year at Easter. The Resurrection of Jesus is the cause of eternal salvation for the souls of those who died before His coming and for all those who came after Him. The Resurrection of Christ throws open the doors of paradise with one condition: that this salvation is liberally accepted by each man. God does not impose acceptance on anyone, and He is always ready to welcome us at every moment.

  At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark there are four phrases that summarize the entire work of the Lord and that nurture and give meaning to our existence: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Analyzing them, we shall understand the sense of the Incarnation and the Resurrection of Jesus.

  The first phrase tells us that the time for waiting is finished: from the moment when Jesus is born on earth, He becomes contemporaneously the center of all human history.

  Here is the substance of the second phrase: heaven, which had been closed because of sin, is now open, in virtue of the transfigured flesh of Christ in His Resurrection. By now His kingdom of justice and peace has definitively arrived. It is helpful to recall that, according to the Old Testament, the dead had a particular destiny: Sheol,3 a type of common grave where the Jews believed their souls would end up after death. Sheol was imagined to be a dim, shadowy place that allowed a diminished type of survival after death. It did not, however, liberate man from the more perverse and adverse effects of creation: exclusion from perfect communion with God and men. But with the advent of Christ and His Resurrection in the flesh, revelation is now complete: the doors of paradise have been thrown open, and the dazzling light of Christ, raised and living, invades the resting place of all the redeemed.

  The third phrase reveals to us that in order to enjoy eternal beatitude, we must change our way of thinking, and therefore our life, in a total and radical way. We have been called to a continuous metanoia, a conversion, a reformulation of the priority of life, so that this reality can also be fully realized in our own existence.

  Finally, the forth phrase tells us how to work this conversion: by living the gospel. There we have all that is necessary. The gospel, in turn, summarizes what Jesus commands His disciples: “love one another; even as I have loved you” (John 13:34).

  What must we embody in order to assume all of this in a serious way? Permit me to respond with a simple personal anecdote. For twenty-six years — from 1942 to 1968 — I went regularly to San Giovanni Rotondo to meet with St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Some of the monks had posters in their cells with inscriptions and reminders. Some were from the Bible but Padre Pio had this: “Human greatness has always had sadness for a companion.” The sense of it seemed clear to me: we must have humility, precisely like Jesus, whom St. Paul describes as “emptying” Himself (cf. Phil. 2:7), that is, of making Himself man — even though He was God — and of dying on the Cross, rejected by men. After this poster was stolen from his room, Padre Pio put up another: “Mary is all the reason for my hope.” If Mary, who is the Mother of Jesus, is our hope, anyone — anyone who suffers, anyone who is alone, or anyone who feels sad — can look at the Nativity of Jesus and at His Resurrection with a heart full of hope.

  The death of Christ throws a penetrating light on our death. The Son of God, making Himself man, wished to accept the condition of men in its totality. God, as the book of Genesis narrates, created man in a condition of immortality. In the terrestrial paradise he received only one prohibition: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Obviously, in order to make us understand better, the biblical author uses metaphorical language: what is related is not understood in a literal sense. The message is received in the depth of its theological significance: for man, it is a trial of obedience and a recognition of the authority of God and of His lordship over creation. In order to make them deviate, the devil used two expedients with Adam and Eve, and he uses them also with us. Above all, he leads them to deny what God has imposed. For this the serpent says to Eve: “You will not die” (Gen. 3:4). He acts in the same way with us, when he makes us doubt the existence of sin and hell and paradise and of their eternity; or, for example, as in our times, where euthanasia and abortion are passed off as signs of humanity’s progress. The second subterfuge is to make evil appear good, a gain rather than a loss. The serpent proceeds: “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). The devil also makes evil appear interesting, positive, and beautiful.

  In light of this situation, by incarnating Himself, Jesus accepts the extreme consequences of this original sin, whose effect is death: “[I]n the day that you eat of it you shall die,” warns God when placing man in Eden (Gen. 2:17). By incarnating Himself, the Son of Man has accepted — as man and only as man — the condition of mortality and all its limitations: hunger, thirst, fatigue, and sensibility to pain. He accepted — in order to save us — the extreme consequence, death, in order to defeat it with His Resurrection. This fact makes St. Paul cry out: “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). Death has been defeated by Jesus! Included in the great consolation of eternal salvation — the Lord will dry each of our tears (cf. Rev. 21:4) — are those who are afflicted with spiritual evils. This is great news for our dear brothers and sisters who suffer so much.

  The Consequences of Christ’s Victory

  Let us ponder what has just been said, lingering a bit on the mystery of the Passion, death, and Resurrection of the Lord. The last —the Resurrection — obtains three victories for us against the three condemnations imposed on Adam and Eve after the original sin. The first condemnation is death; the second regards our body, which falls into decay (“you are dust, and to dust you shall return” [Gen. 3:19]); the third is symbolized in the closing of the doors of paradise.

  Above all, Jesus obtains victory over death; therefore, immediately after closing our eyes to this world, our body does not go into the semidarkness of Sheol; rather, it is destined
to rise again. This plan is expressed very clearly in the affirmation Jesus expresses to the good thief on the cross: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). This tells us that we must not fear death, because in death we are going toward the peace, harmony, and love that await us and give us life without end.

  Here lies the victory over the second condemnation: man is made of soul and body and cannot live with the soul detached from the body. Body and soul are destined to reunite at the end of time, that is, at the moment of the Last Judgment. St. Thomas Aquinas — in my view, the greatest Christian theologian — affirms that, if in faith we believe in this unity between the soul and the body, even from a rational point of view (using only the power of reason), it is impossible to conceive them separated. If we think of the saints — who already enjoy paradise but whose bodies are still not united to their souls, since that will happen only at the end of time — we can be certain that they already live the beatified state without the body and that they will reach their highest level of blessedness when body and soul are rejoined. And through the mercy of God, the same can be said of us when we reach paradise. Only when time is completed, when the soul and the body are rejoined, will there be a true fullness of life. To say it in simple terms: for the moment, the saints have so much happiness that they can be content with only their souls. The same can be said inversely for the damned.

  Finally, regarding the third condemnation, we can maintain that Jesus, by His Resurrection, has opened the doors of paradise for us, the doors that had been closed and sealed by original sin. This is the fundamental lesson of Easter, for which we can say with the joy of our faith that our life is destined to glory and eternal happiness, together with the company of Mary, the saints, and the most Holy Trinity.

  Giving Meaning to Suffering

  Yet we experience pain and suffering in this life. How do we look at eternal life for those who suffer in body and spirit? God created everything for love and happiness, but He also established that each creature arrive there freely and without constraint. The Lord has fixed a trial for everyone. The angels themselves were subjected to this test. We know the final result: some of them rebelled against God and did not wish to recognize His authority or to submit humbly to Him. These are the fallen who were definitively damned. The other angels preferred obedience to God, and they chose paradise.