He used to call himself the Vatican’s exorcist, and that was an apt description.
Officially, Father Gabriele Amorth performed exorcisms for the Rome Diocese. He reveled in the role and was never shy about talking about what is one of the Roman Catholic Church’s most ancient, and controversial, religious rites.
“Exorcism is God’s true miracle,” Amorth told the Los Angeles Times in 2004.
“I’ve never been afraid of the devil,” he said. “In fact, I can say he is often scared of me.”
Amorth died this month after a long illness, a Rome hospital where he had received treatment announced. He was 91.
Amorth helped promote the ritual of banishing the devil from people or places as it experienced something of a comeback in the 2000s.
Amorth claimed to have performed scores of exorcisms, a ritual largely unchanged since medieval times that involves a series of prayers to denounce and drive out Satan. It enjoyed a renaissance as people sought a religious explanation for the evil they viewed in the world.
The gregarious, Italian-born priest blamed the devil for a host of ills, including pornography, drug abuse and secularism.
Exorcists, who are appointed by bishops, are supposed to ensure that the person seeking an exorcism has first sought medical attention. Only when a medical answer is ruled out is the priest allowed to perform the ritual.
Amorth said in the 2004 interview that he followed those rules, but added: “I know there are a lot of skeptics. The presence of the devil is often ignored.”
He also said that he loved the classic horror movie “The Exorcist,” directed by William Friedkin in 1973 and based on a 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty. A few of the special effects might have been a tad exaggerated, Amorth said, but the movie illuminated the work of an exorcist and the dangers of devils.
Amorth was the author of several books on exorcism including “An Exorcist Tells His Story,” translated into English in 1999. He founded the International Association of Exorcists and helped train numerous exorcists.
There was no immediate information on survivors.
