The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist (20 page)

Father Gary even made a believer out of Sister Rebecca when he stopped to chat with her at the library telling her about his experiences out at San Lorenzo.

Other distractions helped take his mind off the events at San Lorenzo and his increasing internal struggles. He had always been a huge fan of classical music, finding it uplifting and inspiring. In fact, his parents had played some of his favorite composers, such as Strauss and Bach, while he was incoherent in the hospital after his accident. So on weekends he went to nearby churches such as San Ignazio, San Marcello, and the Dodici Apostoli as often as he could to listen to the free concerts. Once he saw a performance of Rachmaninov at the performing arts center, and on different occasion, he dragged another priest from the Casa out to Saint Paul's Basilica in the pouring rain to listen to a Vatican-sponsored concert. And while he appreciated such outings, he found it a pleasure just to walk the narrow cobblestone streets. He got a kick out of seeing the restaurants busy even after midnight.

A few parties at the Casa also helped, including the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which he thought brought many of the priests out of their shells. He took it upon himself to organize the Saint Patrick's Day celebration, asking one of the Irish priests to make Irish coffee and decking out the refectory in green. He even enlisted the help of a real Irish fiddler to come and play for a couple of hours, all of which made the party a huge hit.

For Father Gary, being a priest was all about human interaction. He found it ironic when a parishioner who was going through marital problems told him he was lucky that he didn't have to worry about such stuff. (The irony is that, as a pastor, he had around a thousand families to look after.) “People assume that as a priest I don't have any problems, but I do. We all do,” says Father Gary. “Yes, it's true that I don't have some of the problems other people have, such as dealing with the stress of raising a family; but it's also true that I come home to an empty house every night.” He loved to get out and be among people and continually looked for ways to include them. For him, community was paramount, belonging to a family that comes together to celebrate Christ's love.

S
INCE THAT FIRST DAY
in January when Father Carmine accepted him as an apprentice, Father Gary had felt a “monster disconnect” with the victims when the
Ritual
began, despite the cramped space and the bizarre intimacies. All that changed during an exorcism one Saturday in late February.

As usual, Father Carmine had given him no idea of what to expect. When he'd stepped into the office at ten that morning, he was surprised to see Father Daniel, of all people, waiting. “So how'd you get involved in all of this?” Father Gary asked and got a brief sketch of the case before them: The woman was from southern Italy, and because her diocese had no exorcist, she traveled to Rome for exorcisms. Father Daniel happened to be a friend of the priest who often accompanied her.

Father Gary would have liked to hear more, but in walked three people—a Franciscan in his mid-forties with close-cropped hair and a neatly trimmed beard, followed by a plain-looking couple in their early sixties. Wearing a rumpled suit, the man kept his eyes lowered as he entered, while the woman, Giovanna, her hair short and slightly disheveled, had a hard, calcified look about her, as if the weight of some unseen burden was slowly grinding her to dust. She immediately caught Father Gary's attention because she looked “very disturbed” and eyed him warily.

Without wasting time, Father Carmine took Giovanna into the small room and everyone followed—Father Carmine and the two Franciscans in their brown robes, Father Gary in his black clerics. All four priests had on their stoles. The second Father Carmine closed the door, the mood in the room plummeted, becoming very subdued. Giovanna sat down in the chair, and even though the
Ritual
hadn't begun, she began to twitch nervously. Everyone's eyes were fixed on her, and Father Gary could tell immediately that something was unique about this case—he felt a strong sense of foreboding in her presence.

Father Carmine tossed some holy water from his squeeze bottle in her direction, saying,
“In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.”
[In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.]

Giovanna immediately let fly a bloodcurdling scream that gave Father Gary the chills. She quickly stood and scooped up the metal chair with one hand, wielding it over her head like a club while Father Daniel, the family priest, and her husband quickly jumped in to stop her from hurting anyone. Wrestling her back down into the chair, Father Carmine didn't hesitate in placing his hand on top of her head and invoking the Holy Spirit, even as she kicked and fought against the hands that held her back.

After a prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, Father Carmine skipped straight through to the exorcism prayers:
“Deus, humani generis conditor atque defénsor, réspice super huncfàmulam tuam, quam ad tuam imàginem formàsti et ad tux vocas glories, consirtium
…” he said. [God, Creator and defender of the human race, look down on this your servant whom you formed in your own image and now call to be a partaker in your glory …]

The demon wasted no time in manifesting. “You have no power over me!” he growled at Father Carmine in the guttural voice.

“Exaudí, Deus, humana; salutis amàtor, oratiónem Apostolórum tuórum Petri et Pauli et omnium Sanctorum, qui tua grátia viciares ex-stitérunt Maligni: libera hunefàmulum tuam ab omni aliena potestàte et in-cólumen custódi, ut traquillx devotióni restituía, te corde diligat et opéribus desérviat, te glonficet làudibus et magnificet vita,”
Father Carmine prayed. [Hear, God, lover of human salvation, the prayer of your apostles Peter and Paul and of all the saints, who by your grace emerged as victors over the Evil one: free this, your servant, from every foreign power and keep her safe, so that restored to peaceful devotion, she may love you with her heart and may serve you zealously with her works, may glorify you with praises and may magnify you with her life.]

“You don't really believe those children's stories do you?” the demon scoffed. Once again the voice reminded Father Gary of a sound a dog might make were it able to speak. It was a deep, dark evil sound that seemed to come from the depths of the woman's stomach.

“Oooooooooohhhhhhhh,” she moaned over and over as she fought back with even more violence, forcing Father Gary to jump in to help restrain her. The family priest grabbed her legs while Father Gary and Father Daniel held her arms; Giovanna's husband wrapped his own arm around her torso even as she growled and spit at Father Carmine.

Father Gary had never seen this strong a reaction. Giovanna's face had transformed, displaying a sneering look of pure hatred, with her eyes remaining open. Usually in the rare instances when the eyes stayed open, people had mild reactions to the prayers. In stronger cases victims typically closed their eyes to avoid looking at the sacred objects in the room. This time, however, not only were Giovanna's eyes open, but she boldly glared at the various people in the room.

“Exorcizo te, vetus hóminis inimice: recede ab hoc plàsmate Dei. Hoc te iubet Dominus noster Iesus Christus, cuius humilitas tuam vicit supérbiam, làrgitas tuam prostràvit invidiam, mansuetúdo calcàvit sccvitiam.”
[I cast you out, old enemy of man: depart from this servant of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ commands this of you, the humility of whom conquered your pride, the generosity of whom laid low your envy, the gentleness of whom trampled upon your cruelty.]

Again the voice exploded: “Don't you know that he died on the cross? And you are still following him! We are stronger! We are stronger! We win! We win!”

Father Carmine poured some holy water into her eyes, and she struggled violently to shake free, shouting
“Basta!”
and screaming. He continued, undeterred.
“Obmutésce, pater mendàcii, ñeque impedios hancfàmulam Dei Dóminum benedicere et laudare. Hoc tibí imperat Iesus
Christus, sapiéntia Patris et splendor veritàtis, cuius verba spiritus et vita sunt,”
he intoned. [Be silent, father of lies, and do not hinder this servant of God from blessing and praising the Lord. Jesus Christ commands this of you, the wisdom of the Father and the splendor of truth, the words of whom are spirit and life.] Again he repeated the word
imperat
(commands) a few times, accentuating it as he did, “ím-mmm-pe-rat,” in an effort to force the demon to acknowledge his inferiority.

Giovanna bared her teeth. Thick globs of mucus and saliva oozed from her mouth and ran down her chin. “Shut up! Do you know who I am?” the deep voice growled. “Don't treat me like a pig! Look what I can do to this old woman, look what I can do!” Again her body shook violently, prompting all four men to jump in again to stop her from hurting herself.

“Non mi toccare!”
the demon shouted. Don't touch me! After a few minutes, Giovanna calmed down enough that Father Gary and the others could relax their grip. She continued to drool, making no effort to stop the saliva from dribbling onto her shirt. Already there was a small puddle beneath her feet. The family priest grabbed some paper towels and handed them to Giovanna's husband, who dutifully wiped her mouth.

Father Carmine was just starting another prayer of the
Ritual
when, without warning, she turned toward Father Gary, fixing him with unblinking eyes full of hate. He noticed something incredibly unnatural about her eyes, which appeared somehow thicker than normal, almost like Coke bottles, the irises unusually large and black. Even more striking, however, was that a presence seemed to be missing. Her eyes seemed almost dead, the gaze reminding him of the lifeless eyes of cadavers he had seen on the embalming table.

Trapped in the headlights of that “dead” stare, Father Gary felt suddenly exposed, insignificant, as the eyes bored into him. In this profound moment, he knew he was looking straight into the presence of pure evil. Refusing to be cowed, he quickly recomposed himself and refused to waver.
I'll be damned if I am going to let this demon
intimidate me
, he thought. And moments later the demon looked away from Father Gary and fixed his eyes on someone else.

The exorcism continued for over two hours, throughout which Giovanna continued to drool and fight violently while staring at everyone in the room in turn. Father Carmine interspersed Psalms with both the revised and the old
Ritual.
More than a few times, she passed out. Knowing this as a trick the demon will sometimes use to prevent his host from hearing the prayers, Father Carmine simply said a blessing or threw holy water onto her and she sprang right back up. Father Gary jumped in to hold her down on numerous occasions.

As they neared the three-hour mark, Father Gary wondered how much longer they could continue. While all the men in the room were spent, especially Father Carmine, Giovanna showed no signs of slowing down, even though, Father Gary imagined, she had to be exhausted. Finally, when it looked like Father Carmine might pray the
Ritual
for the tenth time, he abruptly stopped and slapped her a few times on the forehead to bring her out of her trance.

It took the woman a full five minutes to recover and even then she seemed rather confused. Because she was unable to stand on her own, Father Daniel and Giovanna's husband carried her out of the room and laid her on Father Carmine's couch. Before long, she began grunting and cursing again.

“Did this do any good at all?” Father Gary asked Father Daniel.

Looking grim, Father Daniel responded that the possession was very entrenched. Giovanna had been undergoing exorcisms for more than forty years, and her case was considered one of the most severe that many of the exorcists in Rome (including Father Amorth and Father Gramolazzo) had seen.

“How did it happen?” Father Gary asked.

Father Daniel explained that Giovanna had been cursed by her mother when she was still in the womb. The mother, a poor woman from a small rural town, had originally tried to terminate the pregnancy on her own; when that failed, she had cursed her own baby.

As they were talking, the woman began to shout once again, letting fly a string of blasphemies, at which point her husband and the family priest took her away. When she'd gone, Father Gary turned to Father Carmine, curious to know why this case had been so violent.

“This is a very powerful demon,” Father Carmine said, explaining a little bit about what he meant. It was then that Father Gary learned that, just like the angels, demons have an entire hierarchy to their existence.