For Catholic experts like Father Fortea, “any resemblance to the reality [of Father Amorth’s life] is mere coincidence,” i.e., non-existent.

Newsroom (March 3, 2023, 12:50 PM, Gaudium Press) We already suspected that big Hollywood’s keen interest in the figure of the courageous exorcist Father Amorth was not so candid, pure or trustworthy, and that we should guard our suspicions and give the upcoming film the benefit of suspicion.

The press reported last year that a production company subsidiary of the giant Sony Company had already hired none other than the renowned Russell Crowe to play that simple Pauline priest, who by his ministry, works and foundation made his work as an exorcist for the diocese of Rome famous all over the world.

And now the trailer for the movie The Pope’s Exorcist is out, and already receiving negative reviews from Catholic experts like Father Fortea, also an exorcist. He pointed out that in the movie “the action of the devil on the possessed is exaggerated” and that, although the production company says that the movie is “based on the archives of Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s leading exorcist,” it should rather announce that “any resemblance to the reality [of Father Amorth’s life] is mere coincidence,” i.e., non-existent.

Watching the preview, one can already agree with another criticism that Father Fortea makes of Sony’s film, such as that its script – usually anticlerical Hollywood – puts the good exorcist in opposition to his Church: he is there the object of the permanent conspiracies of his Church, i.e. Catholic Father Amorth may be good, but the Catholic Church of which he is a minister is not good. We are already used to the fact that in these areas big Hollywood does not tie a knot; just remember the recent films about Popes, or those based on the farces of the imaginative and lying Dan Brown.

Besides this – and just from the trailer – one can already perceive the main poison of the film, common to other films of the genre, which presents the weakness of the Church before the almost “omnipotent” evil, something that ends up being a kind of sycophantic marketing campaign for Satan: priests being lifted in the air and thrown into walls and mirrors by demons; scenes in which Father Amorth appears frightened, tyrannized by the devil, wounded and vomiting blood because of the devil; a poor Pope in a terminal rictus fruit of the devil’s action… in short, none of Christ’s imperious Vade retro satana, but an almost “let’s all flee, because he has come…”

However, and after noting that, according to Catholic theology, the power of the devil is great, we must also remember – and affirm what faith teaches us and what history and good practice confirms – that with his power Christ conquered death, sin and the evil one, and that this power was transmitted to the Church.

And not only to its ministers, as shown in this video in which Father Dartagnan Oliveira of the Heralds of the Gospel narrates the mystical dream that St. Thérèse of Lisieux once had: ‘In her Story of a Soul, Saint Thérèse tells us that one day she had a very different dream, a strange one, in which she saw herself still a little girl, walking in an open field, something like that. At a certain moment she sees a barrel in the distance, and on top of the barrel some demons jumping around in disorder. She sees this, it seems strange, but she, who was a girl, was not afraid of the demons. She gets closer, looks at the demons, and the demons… get really scared and run away!!! Then they hide in the hope that the little girl, Theresa, will not see them. But Saint Thérèse continues her pursuit of Satan, and walks towards them. Before she even arrives, the beasts flee again.’

It is not that the devil could do nothing against the innocent girl, but he fled in terror because of her state of grace, like a frightened chicken. Of course, it was a baptized and innocent little Theresa who with her mere presence defeated Satan.

A mere dream, some will say? No. History records countless similar cases, such as the exorcisms performed by St. Catherine of Siena against scandalous demons, where sometimes the fight was hard, but there were those where her mere presence, or an order from the saint, was enough. Because, after all, it is the power of Christ that is manifested there, making it clear that the demon is nothing more than a mere puppet in the hands of God, the Virgin, the Angels, and those who invoke his power.

When God allows the devil to manifest himself in a scandalous way, it is simply for God to manifest his power more, either to defeat him or to tell men that without God we can do nothing.

Thus, one does not need to believe Satan’s marketing campaigns, but to affiliate with the society of Our Lady’s children, propagate devotion to Her, and go forward quietly, without fear, that She and He have already defeated the devil.

By Saul Castiblanco

Compiled by Zephania Gangl