An Interview With an Exorcist

Father Gabriele Amorth speaks — Famous exorcist: 'The devil loves to take over those who hold political office'. According to the article, "he has performed more than 70,000." Wilt Chamberlain's claims came to my dirty mind, but the good father explained, "I work seven days a week, from morning until night, including Christmas Eve and Holy Week."

About the claim made in the headline:

Evil exists in politics, quite often in fact... The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office. Hitler and Stalin were possessed. How do I know? Because they killed millions of people. The Gospel says: ‘By their fruits you will know them.’ Unfortunately, an exorcism on them would not have been enough, since they were convinced of what they were doing. We can’t say it was a possession in the strict sense of the word, but rather a total and voluntary acceptance of the suggestions of the devil.

This bit about the good father's cooperation with science stands out:

I tell those who come to see me to first go to a doctor or a psychologist... Most of the time there is a physical or psychological basis for explaining their suffering. The psychiatrists send me the incurable cases. There is no rivalry. The psychiatrist determines if it is an illness, the exorcist if it is a curse.

"La plus belles ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas," Charles Baudelaire famously observed. Exorcism seems to be on the rebound, even in secularized lands — Germans seek exorcism over psychology. This bodes well.