The priest explained to exhaustion that this in no way implied that he had cared for that number of victims. He emphasized that each ritual was counted as an exorcism and that some people required hundreds to be released. He also assured the sessions are not as the cinema paints them, neither in spectacularity nor in longevity. Regarding the latter, some can take several days, while others are a matter of minutes.
His battle against the evil one ended in 2016, when he passed away from an illness at the age of 91. However, the spread of his message seems destined to continue for many years to come. At the beginning, with the first great film adaptation of his courageous work.
battle against darkness
“The devil, through his action, tries to destroy the confidence of every man and every woman to love and be loved,” said Gabriele Amorth in her memoirs entitled An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels. This, along with other books written by the ecclesiastic, have been a source of inspiration for The Pope’s Exorcist.
The film begins with the religious in a weak point after being accused of a failed case. The accusation comes at the worst of times, as it coincides with the rise of a demon who seems to have pending accounts with the Vatican and who insists on an unusual meeting with the prestigious exorcist. The ecclesiastic’s soul will be at stake and with it, the fate of the entire Catholic Church.
The film has generated high expectations among horror lovers. However, the International Association of Exorcists has not been so enthusiastic about it. The entity has released a statement in which it claims that “this way of narrating Don Amorth’s experience as an exorcist, in addition to being contrary to historical reality, distorts and falsifies what was truly lived and experienced during the exorcism of the truly possessed. In addition, it is offensive with respect to the state of suffering in which those who are victims of an extraordinary action of the devil find themselves”.
On the latter, Gabriele Amorth himself came to question “What kind of influence do books and especially horror movies have on spiritual life? a refusal”. Among his reasons were the dark messages in many plots, as well as the deceptive way in which these works depict the actions of the devil. Interestingly, one of his few exceptions to the rule was The Exorcist, directed by William Fiedkin.