Giving Satan a chance: an exorcist's complaint. (Vatican).

Rome--Told in a 2001 interview that the Italian translation of the new Ritual for Exorcists was finally ready, the chief exorcist in Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth, bitterly described the long-awaited Ritual as a farce: "An incredible obstacle that is likely to prevent us from acting against the demon."

As a reason for saying this, Amorth gave two examples. Point 15, he says, addresses evil spells and how to behave in dealing with them. The old Roman Ritual explained how one should confront them. The new one categorically declares that it is absolutely forbidden to perform exorcisms in such cases. This, Father Amorth says, is absurd. Evil spells are by far the most frequent cause of the possessions and evil obtained through the demon; they constitute at least 90% of the cases. You might as well tell exorcists they can no longer perform exorcisms.

Point 15, he says, also solemnly declares that one should not carry out exorcisms if one is not certain of the devil's presence. He calls this a master stroke of incompetence: the only way of deciding that the devil is present is by carrying out an exorcism. This is confirmed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which states that exorcisms should be practised in cases of diabolical possession and in those of evil caused by the demon.

The declarations contained in the new Ritual, Father Amorth declares, "are the fruit of ignorance and inexperience." Two commissions worked on the Ritual, and none of their members had ever been present at an exorcism. The exorcists were never consulted: "We were not given the chance to make any kind of contribution. We made numerous observations...but we found ourselves up against a wall of rejection and derision." Amorth calls the new Ritual unusable in the struggle against the demon.

Asked how exorcists are seen within the Church, he replied, "We are treated very badly. Our brother priests look on us as crazy, as fanatics. Satan's greatest success is to make people believe he doesn't exist. He has almost succeeded. We have entire episcopates who are hostile to exorcism. There are countries in which there is not a single exorcist, as for example, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. It is a terrifying deficiency."

"Out of a hundred French exorcists," he continued, "there are only five who believe in the devil and carry out exorcisms. The rest send anyone who gets in touch with them to a psychiatrist." When a celebrated Venetian exorcist, Don Pellegrino Emetti, met the Holy Father and told him that there was an exorcist in Rome (Father Amorth) who says he knows too many bishops who do not believe in the devil, the Pope answered briefly, "He who does not believe in the devil does not believe in the Gospel."

After Vatican II, Fr. Amorth explains, there was a desire to revise certain texts but no thought was given to the danger of making them worse rather than better. And many rites were spoiled by this mania for jettisoning everything from the past and of rebuilding everything from top to bottom, as though the Church had, until today, hoodwinked and misled us. Today people pray, "Deliver us from evil." The reference is to a general evil whose origin is ultimately unknown. But Our Lord taught us to fight against a concrete person, Satan.

Today Satanism is spreading; when faith retreats, superstition advances. The terrible retreat of the faith throughout the whole of Catholic Europe makes people throw themselves into the arms of sorcerers and fortune-tellers, and so Satanism prospers.

Fr. Amorth insists that there is no difference between white magic and black magic. When magic works, it is always the work of the devil. All forms of occultism, like the widespread resort to the religions of the East with their esoteric suggestions, are open gateways to the demon. And the devil enters, immediately.

The devil's strategy is always the same, Amorth says: "He makes people believe that hell does not exist, that sin does not exist, and that he is nothing but one more experiment to try out. Concupiscence, success and power are the three great passions on which Satan relies." As for himself, when he took on the role of exorcist, he asked the Virgin Mary to "envelope me in thy mantle and I will be in total security." While the devil has often threatened him, he has never harmed him, even though he has been involved in hundreds of cases of demonic possession. According to him, the smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. There are even legions of demons installed in the Vatican. In fact he says, "The demon especially tempts the authorities of the Church, just as he tempts every other authority" (Zenit).