Veteran Catholic exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth has died at the age of 91.
The National Catholic Register reports that he had performed over 70,000 exorcisms over 29 years. In 1990, he founded the International Association of Exorcists and was President until he retired, in 2000.
In one of his last interviews, Amorth blamed “pure atheism” for the sorry state of the planet:
Today the world does not turn from God because it is idolatrous; rather it pursues pure atheism, so as to put science on the altar.
By turning away from the Lord, he said scientific breakthroughs “are put to disastrous use” and that without the Lord, “progress too is misused”.
We see it in laws that go totally against nature such as divorce, abortion and ‘gay marriage’. We have forgotten God! Therefore, God will soon admonish humanity in a very powerful manner, He knows how to remind us of His presence.
Divorce has been a disaster; abortion has been a disaster. Each year 50 million children are murdered by abortion. And euthanasia, the broken family, cohabitation … It is all destruction!
Often sought out by media around the world for his views on exorcism and understanding the struggle against evil, Father Amorth once confirmed that he thought Hitler and Stalin were “certainly” possessed by the Devil, but denied that that fact removed their own personal responsibility for their actions.
They followed “the promptings of the devil and they have done so willingly,” Father Amorth said in a 2006 interview.
Therefore they are guilty, completely responsible.
When asked if there were any leaders today who could be similarly possessed, the exorcist said there are:
Many who listen to the temptations of Satan and follow him.
The Independent reported that the Italian priest, who was the chief exorcist for the diocese of Rome, controversially claimed Harry Potter books encouraged children to believe in black magic and yoga is “evil” because it promotes Hinduism.
Father Amorth believed people possessed by Satan tend to vomit pieces of iron and shards of glass. and he credited the 1973 film The Exorcist for giving a “substantially exact” representation of what it was like to be possessed by Satan.
While Father Amorth’s death is a blow for the diocese of Rome, exorcisms will still be carried out by its other nine resident exorcists, said the Independent.