Father Gabriele Amorth - Professional Exorcist

I saw this short quote over at Merle Kessler's blog:

Noted Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, commented this week that the recent defamatory reporting on Pope Benedict XVI, especially by the New York Times, was ‘prompted by the devil.

And my first thought was along the lines of, "When you have a hammer, all your problems begin to look like nails."

But then I went over to Wikipedia to see if Father Amorth had an entry. I mean, it says right in the quote that he is noted, so I figured that might make him, in Wikipedia terms, notable and thus worthy of an entry.

Sure enough, there is an entry about him. But that quote above hardly does him justice. The entry is rich with his beliefs.

For example, his favorite movie? The Exorcist!

Really. Aside from the over-the-top special effects, he thinks people should see the movie so people knows what he does.

Number of exorcisms? 70,000! The man is, literally, a holy terror, exorcising, on average, 8 times a day!

Leading cause of demonic possession?

People have lost the Faith, and superstition, magic, Satanism, or Ouija boards have taken its place, which then open all the doors to the presence of demons.

Most common problem after demonic possession? Curses.

Leading cause of curses?

A curse can originate from such things as maledictions by close relatives, a habit of blaspheming, membership in Freemasonry, spiritic or magic practices, and so on.

Think about that!

Pet peeve? The new exorcism rites. He says they are:

A blunt weapon.... Efficacious prayers, prayers that had been in existence for twelve centuries, were suppressed and replaced by new ineffective prayers

The man is, if nothing else, hard core.