Fr. Gabriele Amorth (born May 1, 1925) is an Italian Catholic priest, born in Modena, Italy, who is the senior exorcist of Vatican City in the Archidiocese of Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1954. He became an official Vatican exorcist in 1986 under the tutelage of Father Candido Amantini and states in his book that he has personally carried out over 50,000 exorcisms.[1]
Father Amorth is convinced that many of the Nazis were possessed including Adolf Hitler. He also suggested that Josef Stalin and Karl Marx were most likely possessed as well so as to affect millions of people by evil.[2] Amorth claims that Pope Pius XII attempted a long-distance exorcism of Hitler, which failed to have any effect.[3]
Father Amorth has been critical of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels stating that "behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil," and the concept portrayed in the novels of a black and white magic distinction "does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil."[2] On the subject of the Harry Potter movies, Father Amorth said in an interview by the New York Times, "If children can see the movie with their parents, it's not all bad,"[4] However, children can still be drawn to the occult be becoming interested in these stories.
The London Sunday Telegraph has reported that Amorth's favorite movie is The Exorcist[5] - which deals with the exorcism of a demon from a young girl, which itself was based on a real-life exorcism performed in the 1950s in St. Louis, Missouri.
He founded the International Association of Exorcists in 1990 and was president of honor until the year 2000.
An Exorcist Tells his Story, with Nicoletta V. Mackenzie 1999. (ISBN 0898707102)
Gospel of Mary: A Month With the Mother of God, 2000. (ISBN 0818908718)
An Exorcist: More Stories, with Nicoletta V. Mackenzie 2002 (ISBN 0898709172)
Esorcisti e Psichiatri, 2002 EDB - Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna. (ISBN 8071929816)
Pater Pio: Lebensgeschichte eines Heiligen, 2003. (ISBN 3717111086)
References
1. "Moon's Sect Brainwashed Bishop, Exorcist Says", EWTN, 2001-05-29.
2. "Potter is prince of evil", Daily Telegraph, 2006-09-01.
3. Nick Pisa. August 28, 2006. "Hitler and Stalin were posessed by Devil, says Vatican exorcist." Daily Mail.
4. Henneberger, Melinda. "A Priest Not Intimidated by Satan or by Harry Potter", Arts Abroad, The New York Times, 2002-01-01.
5. Brandreth, Gyles (2000-10-29). An Interview With Fr Gabriele Amorth (HTML). The Sunday Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2004-11-06.