The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist (27 page)

NOTES

About the citations: For the sake of maintaining the narrative flow, I have kept citations in the text to a rninirnurn. Unless specifically noted here in the end-notes, direct quotations appearing in the text are taken from my interviews.

P
ROLOGUE

2: The thirty-five-year-old woman: The material for this exorcism came primarily from two sources: the transcript of an audio recording of the exorcism made by Father Bamonte and an interview with the victim, in which she recounted her visions and feelings during the exorcism.

2: Saint Gemma Galgani: Saint Gemma is one of the few Catholic saints reported to have been attacked by the Devil during her lifetime. As a result, possessed people often pray to her for strength. Born near the Italian town of Lucca on March 12, 1878, Gemma had many mystical experiences. At a very early age, she dedicated herself to a life of intense prayer and claimed that Jesus, Mary, and her guardian angel appeared to her. Constantly ill, she developed meningitis when she was twenty and attributed her cure to the intervention of deceased Passionist priest Gabriel Possenti, later canonized. At twenty-one she received the stigmata, which appeared on Thursday evenings and healed by Saturday mornings, leaving a whitish mark where the deep wounds had been. Throughout her life she felt constantly tormented by the Devil. In one diary entry, she describes the Devil raining blows down upon her back for several hours. She died at the age of twenty-five.

In this case, the woman had always felt a strong connection to Gemma, having visited her tomb in Lucca, Italy, on her honeymoon.

6:
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The first version of the book was published in French in 1992, translated into English in 1994. The creation of the
Catechism
was undertaken in 1985 when Pope John Paul II, guided by the “spirit of the Second Vatican Council,” convoked an extraordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops to “study its teachings in greater depth in order that all the Christian faithful might better adhere to it and to promote knowledge and application of it,”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
, p. 2. In 1986, Pope John Paul II entrusted the drafting of it to a group of twelve cardinals and bishops led by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. The book is considered the source of all authentic Catholic doctrine.

6: By 2006, that number was said to have risen: Chas S. Clifton,
Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America
, p. 11.

6: Sales of occult and New Age books: Numerous self-help spirituality books have become best sellers in recent years, such as Eckhart Tolle's
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
, New World Library, 2004, and
A New Earth: Awakening Your Life's Purpose
, Penguin, 2008, both of which had sales into the millions.

6: According to the Association of Italian Catholic Psychiatrists and Psychologists: as reported in “God Told Us to Exorcise My Daughter's Demons. I Don't Regret Her Death,” by Elizabeth Day,
The Daily Telegraph
, November 26, 2005.

7: a Romanian nun … was found dead: “Crucified Nun Dies in ‘Exorcism,’” June 18, 2005, BBC. The story was originally reported in the
Agence France-Presse
, 2005. In February 2007, the priest was sentenced to fourteen years in jail for the crime. See “Priest Jailed for Exorcism Death,” BBC, February 19, 2007.

In another famous case in Germany in 1976, two priests were charged with negligent homicide when a young girl they were exorcising, Anneliese Michel, starved to death. The episode provided the basis for the movie
The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
For more, see
The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel
, by Felicitas D. Goodman.

C
HAPTER ONE: ROME

10: more than 15,000 of them: John L. Allen, Jr.,
All the Pope's Men
, p. 161.

12-13: At his Jesus Caritas monthly priest support group: A group based on the teachings of Charles de Foucauld, who was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1858. Losing his faith as a youth, Foucauld served as an officer in the army in North Africa and went to explore Morocco in 1883. After returning to France, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he became a Trappist monk for seven years. Ordained in 1901, he desired to live as Jesus had, among “the most abandoned.” He spent his time in the deserts of northern Africa and established the groundwork for founding a religious family, centered on the Gospels. He died before its creation, however, when he was killed by marauders in 1916. Today, Jesus Caritas continues Charles de Foucauld's desire to “live in the presence of God and at the same time in the midst of humankind.”

Members of the group meet once a month to share scripture, pray before the Eucharist, and share a review of life,
www.jesuscaritasusa.org/
.

15: Father Gabriele Amorth […] official exorcist of Rome and best-selling author: The latest of these appearances occurred on June 6, 2008. Both his books,
An Exorcist Tells His Story
(1999) and An
Exorcist: More Stories
(2002), were European best sellers. Father Amorth has been featured in many publications including
The Daily Telegraph
(“Vatican to Create More Exorcists to Tackle ‘Evil’” by Nick Pisa, December 30, 2007) and the New
York Times
, January 1, 2002.

15: including the Harry Potter books: In 2002, Father Amorth originally told the ANSA Italian News Agency that “behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.” He also decried the books’ attempt to differentiate between “white” and “black” magic when “the distinction does not exist because magic is always a turn to the devil.” The diatribe was then picked up and ran in numerous periodicals and Web sites, most notably in an article in the
New York Times
, January 1, 2002: “A Priest Not Intimidated by Satan or by Harry Potter.” As recently as January 15, 2008, an Italian scholar spoke out on the Harry Potter books in the official Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano
, saying that the books fall into “the old Gnostic temptation of confusing salvation and truth with secret knowledge.” In addition to attacking Harry Potter, Father Amorth has also been quoted as saying that both Hitler and Stalin were possessed by the devil,
Daily Mail News
, London, by Nick Pisa, August 28, 2006.

15: “are treated as though they are crazy, as fanatics”: “The Smoke of Satan in the House of the Lord,” by Stefano Maria Pad, first printed in
30 Days
, June 2001, p. 30.

15: “For three centuries, the Latin Church”: Ibid, pp. 30-31.

15: “There are countries in which”: Ibid.

16: According to the Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII: Founded in 1968 by Don Oreste Benzi, the association was established as a way to reach out to young people who “would never have managed to make it on their own.” Now present in eighteen countries, the association works for the betterment of the marginalized, including former drug addicts, prostitutes, and victims of cults,
www.apg23.org/cgi-bin/pagina.cgi
.

16: still practice Tarantism: For more information on Tarantism, see
Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession
by I. M. Lewis, pp. 36-38, 80-83.

16: 50,000 tax-paying citizens: Marlise Simons, “Paris Journal; Land of Descartes Under the Spell of Druids?” New
York Times
, April 30, 1996.

16: some would say exaggerated: Given the secretive nature of sects, it is hard to know if these numbers reflect an accurate picture. In
Sette Saturadle (Satanic Sects)
, Italian psychiatrist Vincenzo Maria Mastronardi and psychologist Ruben De Luca point out the near impossibility of knowing the true numbers of Satanic sects in existence, p. 92. To further complicate matters, some scholars cast a wide net when it comes to categorizing certain beliefs as “satanic,” including voodoo and Wicca. According to one expert, Satanism can be seen as a form of extreme cynicism: “It is a way of seeing the world as a jungle, where only the strongest survive. A world in which all limits are absent, bad examples are on offer and in which the perfection of television's role models is countered with the search for extremes, for power at all costs” (Carlo Climati, as quoted by journalist Nicholas Rigillo, “Satanic Murders Just the Tip of an Iceberg, Claims Roman Church,” from the Australian Web site “The Age,” January 5, 2005).

17: the Church's approach to appointing and training exorcists: Father Gramolazzo told me that the International Association of Exorcists had been looking at the possibility of starting a training program for many years as well, but had been unable to organize it.

17: Legionaries of Christ: Founded in 1941 in Mexico by Father Marcial Maciel, the Legionaries of Christ is currently one of the fastest-growing Catholic organizations in the world, with a presence in over twenty countries, and a large lay movement known as Regnum Christi. The Legion is mostly considered “right wing” because it is dedicated to advancing the Church's social agenda as expressed by the Holy See. It has always been strongly supported by the Vatican, especially Pope John Paul II. Liberals see the group as antithetical to the modernization that was ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. For more on the Legionaries go to:
www.legionariesofchrist.org/
.

C
HAPTER THREE: GOING BACK TO SCHOOL

33: a struggle between “two cities”: A concept developed by Saint Augustine, in his work
The City of God
, in which he contrasted the declining glory of the Roman Empire and its citizens’ worldly pursuits to that which will be won by the inhabitants of the City of God, who shun all such earthly pleasures in favor of a spiritual path.

34: The New Testament is full of stories of Jesus exorcising demons: Four of Jesus’ exorcisms are presented in great detail: (1) the man in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:33-36); (2) the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20; Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39); (3) the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30; Matthew 15: 21-28); and (4) the epileptic boy (Mark 9:14-29; Matthew 7:14-21; Luke 9:37-43).

34: the Gerasene demoniac: Although the story labels the man as the Gerasene demoniac, Matthew locates the exorcism in the town of Gadara, closer to the Sea of Galilee than Gerasa is. Much has been made of the obvious exaggeration associated with this exorcism. For instance, in his book
Mary Magdalene
, Bruce Chilton suggests “legion” is really a stand-in for Rome and all the “evils” that the Roman Empire represented to the Jews at the time, pp. 38-40.

34: not the only exorcist: The Jews also believed in exorcism, as documented by the historian Flavius Josephus, who lived in Palestine (circa 37-100). In one exorcism recounted by him, the Jewish exorcist Eleazar used a root attached to a sacred ring to draw out a demon though a person's nose, Josephus's
Antiquities
8.46-48.

34: impossible for a demon to cast out a demon: Jesus was charged by the Pharisees with invoking the name of Beelzebul, “the chief of demons,” also known as “Beelzebub,” which was tantamount to an accusation of witchcraft. Some scholars say the name “Baal Zebub,” meaning “Lord of the flies,” is actually a corruption of “Baal Zebul,” “Lord in high places.” It is first used in 2 Kings 1:2-16, to denote a foreign god. It has been reported by scholars that during the exorcisms of the time, certain exorcists did invoke BeelzebuFs name. See Bruce Chilton's
Mary Magdalene
, p. 29; and
By the Power of Beelzebub: An Aramaic Incantation Formula from Qumran (4QS60)
by Douglas L. Penney and Michael O. Wise, pp. 627-50.

35: for believers to win converts: Saint Irenaeus, writing in the second century C.E. (Christian Era), says, “By invoking the name of Jesus Christ… Satan is driven out of men.” In his
Apology
, Tertullian writes: “Let a person be brought before your tribunals, who is plainly under demonical possession. The wicked spirit, bidden to speak by a follower of Christ, will as readily make the truthful confession that he is a demon, as elsewhere he had falsely asserted that he is a god” (Chapter 23). And in his apologetical work
Against Celsus
, Origen counters the pagan philosopher Celsus's view that Christian exorcisms are accomplished through magical rites, stating that “the strength of the exorcism lies in the name of Jesus, which we pronounce while, at the same time, we announce the facts of his life.” Origen even claims that the name of Jesus is so powerful that a non-Christian can use it with success (as witnessed by the Jewish exorcists in the Gospel of Mark 9:38-41).

35: in the early ceremonies of baptism: In
The Prince of Darkness
, Jeffrey Burton Russell quotes Tertullian as saying, “If the Son of God has appeared … to destroy the works of the Devil, he has destroyed them by delivering the soul through baptism.” Russell also notes that until the year 200, baptism was preceded by a series of exorcisms that were separate from the rite itself, reflecting the belief of early Christians that the Devil had a hold over mankind thanks to original sin, p. 72. Among other things, Tertullian incorporated a formal renunciation of Satan into the baptismal rite about 200 C.E. The early Church did differentiate between an exorcism performed on a candidate for baptism (known as a catechumen) and a person who was possessed (known as an energumen), a belief that persists today in the form of a “simple” exorcism performed at baptism and the “solemn” exorcism performed on energumens. For more on the importance of exorcism in the ritual of baptism, see Jeffrey Burton Russell's Satan:
The Early Christian Tradition
, pp. 100-103; and H. Kelly,
The Devil at Baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama.

35: continue to believe in such things: Satan had already begun to be “phased out” from popular thought even earlier, when critics like Voltaire and David Hume had attacked the foundations of Christianity during the Enlightenment. Later, with the advent of psychoanalysis, the concept of the Devil took another blow. Sigmund Freud called him “nothing other than the personification of repressed, unconscious drives,” while for Carl G. Jung he was a mythical, psychological symbol or archetype, which Jung called the “shadow.”

35: the Devil was a “person”:
Catechism of the Catholic Church
, 2851, “Evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God,” p. 753.

35: “We cannot use electric light and radio”: Rudolf Bui tmann, New
Testament
¿r
Mythology
, p. 110.

35: Herbert Haag, Bas van Iersel, and Henry Ansgar Kelly: Haag's important works are
Abschied vom Teufel
(1969) and
Teufehglaube
(1974). Bas van Iersel wrote the book
Engelen en duivels
(Angels and Devils) in 1968; and H. A. Kelly's seminal work is
The Devil, Demonology and Witchcraft
(1968). In an even earlier work by Arturo Graf,
The Story of the Devil
(1931), the author states: “The devil is dead or about to die; and, dying, he will not reenter the kingdom of heaven, but he will reenter and become dissolved in the imagination of man, the same womb whence he first issued forth,” p. 251.

36: on November 15, 1972, Pope Paul VI: A general audience entitled “Liberad dal male” (Deliver Us from Evil), in which the pope spoke about, among other things, the mystery of evil and the defense against the Devil.

36: why would he misinform his followers: This question seems all the more pertinent since the belief in exorcism was by no means universal during Jesus’ time. The Sadducees, for instance, did not believe in angels or spirits and, as a corollary, demonic possession. The Bible also makes a clear distinction between those times when Jesus heals certain illnesses, such as blindness or leprosy, as opposed to when he casts out an evil spirit. For example, in none of the instances when he simply heals people do they manifest any of the symptoms described in the cases of demonic possession (such as unnatural strength or the demon addressing Jesus directly).

In addition, many critics of exorcism simply assume that all disease was attributed to the presence of “evil spirits.” The Greek Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.E.), for one, wrote in his treatise
The Sacred Disease
that mental illnesses have natural causes. About epilepsy, known as “sacred disease” at the time, he wrote: “It is not in my opinion, any more divine or more sacred than other diseases, but has a natural cause, and its supposed divine origin is due to men's inexperience, and to their wonder at its peculiar character” (from
The Sacred Disease
I, W.H.S. Jones and E.T. Withington,
Hippocrates
, 4 vols., Loeb Classical Library, 1923).

36: a kind of existential relativism: Existentialism's emphasis on individual interpretation undercut the foundation for ontological truth, which Thomas Aquinas said formed the “essence” of a thing. As John Nicola wrote in
Diabolical Possession and Exorcism
, “Relativism in ethics urged the individual to judge the morality of a given act not on general principles of law but in its concrete moral milieu,” p. 77. In this way, priests became less bound by tradition and more apt to follow their own interpretations.

36: Charles Baudelaire's well-known phrase: “My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear
the progress of enlightenment
vaunted, that the devil's best trick is to persuade you that he doesn't exist!”
“Le Joueur généreux,”
February 7, 1864; trans. Cat Nilan, 1999.

37: Father Daniel: This is a pseudonym.

38: the Scala Santa, a church: For many years, it was used by Father Candido Amantini, a Passionist priest who was the chief exorcist in Rome during the 1960s,’70s, and’80s.