Vatican Introduces New, Useless Rite of "Exorcism"

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        The June 2000 issue of 30 Days magazine contains a revealing interview with Father Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist for the City of Rome. Fr. Amorth laments that, at long last, the Vatican’s liturgical "reformers" have gotten around to "reforming" the traditional rite of exorcism. The result, according to Fr. Amorth, is "a farce. An incredible obstacle that is likely to prevent us from acting against the demon."

        For one thing, notes Fr. Amorth, the new exorcism ritual actually forbids the performance of exorcisms on people who have been subjected to evil spells. "Absurd," says Fr. Amorth. "Evil spells are by far the most frequent causes of possessions and evil procured through the demon: at least 90% of cases. It is as good as telling exorcists they can no longer perform exorcisms."

       Even more ridiculous, if that were possible, is that the new ritual "solemnly declares that one should not carry out exorcisms if one is not certain of the presence of the devil. This is a masterstroke of incompetence: the certainty that the devil is present in someone can only be obtained by carrying out an exorcism."

        Fr. Amorth observed that none of the members on the commission who devised the new ritual "had ever been present at an exorcism and ever possessed the slightest idea of what an exorcism is." When Fr. Amorth and a number of his fellow exorcists tried to present the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship with a report on the deficiencies of the new rite, the Secretary responded derisively that "a group of exorcists and ‘demonologues’, who subsequently formed themselves into an international Association, were busy orchestrating a campaign against the rite." Fr. Amorth described this as "An indecent accusation: we have never orchestrated a campaign! The Ritual was intended for us, and yet not one competent person had been called upon by the commission; so it was only to be expected that we should seek to make our contribution."

        All in all, says Fr. Amorth, the new exorcism ritual is "a blunt weapon. Efficacious prayers, prayers that had been in existence for twelve centuries, were suppressed and replaced by new ineffective prayers." Fortunately, and perhaps by intervention of the Holy Ghost, the Congregation for Divine Worship has conceded permission to exorcists to use the traditional rite upon application to the Congregation.

        But much of the Vatican apparatus remains hostile to the very notion of exorcism and exorcists. Fr. Amorth revealed that a scheduled public audience with the Pope for an international congress of exorcists was suddenly cancelled the day before, and that no explanation has ever been provided.

        Fr. Amorth observes what Fr. Gruner has long been pointing out concerning the post-conciliar Church: "We have a clergy and an episcopate who no longer believe in the devil, in exorcisms, in the extraordinary evil that the devil can cause, nor in the power that Jesus has given us to drive out demons." In fact, says Fr. Amorth: "The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Perhaps we were excluded from the audience with the Pope because they were afraid that such a large number of exorcists might succeed in chasing out the legions of demons that have installed themselves in the Vatican." When the 30 Days reporter asked Fr. Amorth if he was joking, he forthrightly replied: "It may seem like a joke, but I do not believe it is. I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially, just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry."

        This is the chief exorcist of the City of Rome speaking, not someone who can be dismissed as a "radical traditionalist crackpot," as the neo-Catholic apologists for the post-conciliar debacle tend to characterize those who dare to remark the obvious: that the devil has invaded the Vatican itself. Only this can account for the absolutely unprecedented upheaval and confusion in the Church since the "springtime of Vatican II" began. "In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved" is the beginning of the Third Secret. Fr. Amorth’s frank comments about the Vatican point to the rest of what Our Lady of Fatima revealed. No wonder the full text of the Third Secret of Fatima remains under lock and key in some Vatican archive.