Vatican Exorcism
Fails
September 12, 2000 08:12
CDT
A British newspaper has reported an unusual encounter with the devil in the Vatican, with Pope Paul II, himself, attempting an exorcism of a possessed young woman.
The Telegraph reported "the Pope carried out an impromptu exorcism on a teenage girl after she began screaming insults in a cavernous voice during an audience in the Vatican City. Despite the Pope's efforts and those of his chief 'Satan-buster,' Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the girl remained possessed. The Devil's voice sneeringly laughed from within her at the Pope's failed attempt to drive him away," said the British news organization. -Staff Writer Sally Suddock
by Bruce Johnston in Rome, The Electronic Telegraph, 9/11/00
THE Pope carried out an impromptu exorcism on a teenage girl after she began "screaming insults in a cavernous voice" during an audience in the Vatican City, it emerged at the weekend.
Despite the Pope's efforts and those of his chief "Satan-buster", Fr Gabriele Amorth, the girl remained "possessed". The Devil's voice "sneeringly laughed from within her" at the Pope's failed attempt to drive him away.
"The Devil went to the Vatican," the Il Messaggero newspaper in Rome reported after being told of the incident by Fr Amorth. He said the exorcism had been the Pope's third in his 22-year papacy.
The paper said that although there may have been other instances of people being possessed in the Vatican, last week's incident had been "spectacular" and Satan had "shown his muscles". The incident occurred during last Wednesday's general audience in a packed St Peter's Square. Suddenly the unnamed 19-year-old girl from Monza began shouting "in a cavernous voice and as if in a fit of rage".
Constrained by Vatican guards, she was said to have displayed "a super-human strength" as she violently pushed them away. Bishop Gianni Danzi, Secretary-General of Vatican City, intervened and sought to calm her by showed her a crucifix. But she began "insulting him, uttering disconnected phrases, and speaking in unknown tongues".
Bishop Danzi hurriedly informed the Pope's private secretary, Mgr Stanislao Dziwisz, who in turn told the pontiff. After driving around the piazza in his Popemobile, the Pope talked to the girl, exorcised her, and stayed with her for half an hour. He prayed for her and assured her that he would say a Mass for her the next day "to obtain her liberation".
But it appeared afterwards that the Pope's intervention had only a temporary effect on the girl. She was said to have been "possessed since she was 12", as a result of someone putting a curse on her out of hatred for her parents. She had been taken by her mother and father to the audience in the hope that a papal blessing would be of some benefit.
Fr Amorth claimed that the Vatican had attempted to cover up the affair. He said: "I exorcised the very same girl on [the day before the indident] together with another exorcist, Fr Giancarlo Gramolazzo.
"She is a splendid girl in terms of purity and goodness. Her case of possession by the Devil is terrible. It moves one to pity to see her suffer so, all bent over and contracted."
