Who is Gabriele Amorth, the real-life exorcist, who has inspired Russell Crowe’s new movie?

Come Friday, two-time Oscar winner Russell Crowe will grace the big screen across the world in the new movie, The Pope’s Exorcist. With a title like this, it’s not surprising that the movie is set to scare audiences.

Interestingly though, the movie is based on a real-life Catholic priest Gabriele Amorth, who claimed to have performed over 50,000 exorcisms in his life.

Speaking on playing Amorth, 58-year-old Crowe said, “He left behind a whole bunch of his first-person experiences to read through. I think there are like a dozen books or something like that, you know. So, it was just his journey that really fascinated me to start with.”

We take a closer look at who exactly was Father Gabriele Amorth, also known as the ‘Vatican’s Exorcist’.

The Vatican’s Exorcist

Father Gabriele Amorth was born in Italy’s Modena in 1925 and grew up in a devoted Catholic family. At the age of 12, he discovered his vocation to priesthood and got ordained in 1954.

In the time that he was in Church, Father Amorth came to be known for performing exorcisms for the Rome Diocese. In fact, in the 2000s, Father Amorth helped promote the ritual of banishing the devil from people or places. Exorcisms were embraced by then-Pope John Paul II, who revealed having performed two or three of them himself.

Moreover, in 1990 he founded the International Association of Exorcists, of which he was president until his retirement at the age of 75.

Father Amorth claimed to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms and was even once quoted as telling the Los Angeles Times in an interview that “exorcism is God’s true miracle”. He was also quoted as saying, “I’ve never been afraid of the devil. In fact, I can say he is often scared of me.”

Until his death in 2016, Amorth claimed to have performed about 50,000 exorcisms — ranging from anything like a simple prayer to full-blown casting out of demons, similar to what one would see in the movie The Exorcist.

He claimed that he saw the most bizarre and horrifying things during his exorcism. In a report published by the National Post, Father Amorth said that he saw a woman spitting out pieces of a transistor radio.

He also claimed to have seen possessed victims levitate, saying that what people saw in the 1973 horror movie The Exorcist was a representation of what it was to be possessed by Satan.

Also read: Who’s Afraid of the Horror Movie?

Amorth had said that he only performed exorcisms on people once they exhausted help of traditional medicine and psychiatry. In a Vanity Fair interview, he had said, “Out of a hundred people who seek my help, one or two at the most may be possessed.”

Besides his extensive exorcisms, Father Amorth also authored several books such as An Exorcist Tells His Story, An Exorcist: More Stories, and Exorcism and Psychiatry. He also contributed to television and radio programs on all things related to exorcism.

Yoga and Harry Potter’s satanic link

Father Amorth held very outspoken views on what he thought was satanic or anti-Christian in nature. He had claimed that Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, and, even the Islamic State were possessed by the Devil.

In 2011, his comments stirred protests and anger when he said yoga was a tool of the devil. He also claimed Harry Potter books encourage children to believe in black magic.

He had said, “Practising yoga brings evil as does reading Harry Potter. They may both seem innocuous but they both deal with magic and that leads to evil.”

He added: “Yoga is the Devil’s work. You thing you are doing it for stretching your mind and body but it leads to Hinduism. All these oriental religions are based on the false belief of reincarnation.”

On the JK Rowling hit series, Father Amorth was quoted as saying, “People think it is an innocuous book for children but it’s about magic and that leads to evil. In Harry Potter, the devil is at work in a cunning and crafty way, he is using his extraordinary powers of magic and evil.”

Exorcisms across the world

Belief in possession by spirits appeared as early as 3100 BC, in the Sumerian culture of ancient Mesopotamia, now parts of Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait. In the New Testament, demons are cast out by Jesus. And exorcisms have been common around the world — as every society needs explanations for things that cannot be explained.

And pop culture, especially Hollywood has jumped on this belief. There are countless exorcism-inspired films, including The Last Exorcism, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Devil Inside and The Rite — wildly varying in quality, originality, and scariness.

But while many may scoff at the notion or believe that it’s a thing of the past, exorcisms continue to be performed, often on people who are emotionally and mentally disturbed. Whether those undergoing the exorcism are truly possessed by spirits or demons is another matter entirely.

Father Amorth died in September 2016 at the age of 91 of pulmonary-related illness, but with Russell Crowe’s new movie, interest around the priest and exorcisms will get a new life again.

With inputs from agencies

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