Exorcism and Hollywood

Very few know and understand exorcism. In 1973, William Blatty wrote a novel entitled The Exorcist which was a movie hit starring Linda Blair as the possessed child and Max Von Sydow as the exorcist. Author Blatty said his novel was based on an incident in Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington, DC, involving a Jesuit exorcist priest.

This April 2023, a film entitled “The Pope’s Exorcist” was released. Jesuit author Fr. Edward Siebert teaches at Loyola Mary Mount University in Los Angeles, USA and runs the school’s film production. He heard about the story of Society of St. Paul’s Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the Chief Exorcist of the Diocese of Rome from 1986 up to 2016.

In 1990, Fr. Amorth wrote “An Exorcist tells his story” which became a bestseller and founded the International Association of Exorcists. Fr. Siebert, SJ wanted to make a film about Fr. Amorth. He and filmmaker Michael Kaczmarek collaborated and finally convinced the St. Paul publishing company to let them make a film about Fr. Amorth.

Myth and reality is obvious to Fr. Amorth’s religious order. Fr. Amorth was clean shaven, bald and wore glasses. In the film Russell Crowe as Fr. Amorth had a beard, did not use eyeglasses and had thick close cropped hair. In the film, set in 1987, Crowe and his assistant priest, goes to Spain to investigate a young boy’s possession and learned of a church cover up/conspiracy that had touches of Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The books of Fr. Amorth’s experiences about demons and exorcism made the church and the faithful aware of this almost forgotten ministry.

Use your cellphone, tablet, laptop, computer to get more info regarding: 1. The Exorcist, 1973, 2. The Pope’s Exorcist, 2023, 3. Fr. Gabriel Amorth and his books.

Fr. Amorth’s Books and the film stressed that 98% of those who went to him needed a psychiatrist, but 2% is something that has confounded science and medicine. Fr. Amorth calls it evil.