Chief exorcist thanks Pope Benedict
2013-02-16 14:06
Rome - The Vatican's chief exorcist has thanked Pope
Benedict XVI for opening the way to exorcisms, not only for those possessed by
the devil but also those tormented by him.
"Benedict held an audience with exorcists from all
over the world and welcomed us with words of great, great encouragement,"
Gabriel Amorth, devil fighter for the diocese of Rome for 27 years, said late on
Friday in an interview with Italian religious channel TV2000.
"He has continued to encourage us. The pope has done
a lot to revise procedures... and given us powerful prayers that serve to
exorcise," said Amorth.
The praise came after the 85-year-old pontiff said he was
resigning on 28 February due to old age. Benedict's papacy has been hit hard by
sex abuse scandals and divisions within the church - both of which Amorth has
previously blamed as the work of the devil.
As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he helped reform the
catechism of the Catholic Church to "widen the front in the fight against
Satan... not just in cases of the diabolic possession of people but in all
cases of disturbances caused by the devil and that's 90% of the cases,"
Amorth said.
He said that cases of full possession by the devil are
very rare, but that he has seen victims "walk on walls, slither across the
floor like a snake”.
Disturbances caused by the devil, however, "have
become extremely common”.
"People go to wizards, to fortune-tellers, to those
who call themselves exorcists... it's become a problem, because when someone
wants an exorcist, there aren't very many and they are ill prepared," he
said.
The Association of Exorcists also has its work cut out
because "the act of exorcism had been suspended for centuries, and while
there is a huge request for exorcists, there are priests and bishops who do not
believe in it."
