His rock-solid faith, passionate love for Mary, serenity acquired at the feet of the Eucharist, gentle and affable smile, worn cassock, kind irony, warm embrace of a true father, ability to bring Christ’s light and become an instrument of consolation and mercy for those tormented by the devil: this is the portrait of Father Gabriele Amorth, the greatest exorcist in the world.
With the frankness that had always distinguished him, he shook consciences by affirming: the devil exists and can act devastatingly in the lives of many people. And many people imprisoned by the devil turned to him, sometimes after trying “treatments” of every kind, and obtained deliverance from the Lord through his exorcisms.
Often bringing out his extraordinary irony, which helped defuse even the most complicated situations in his tireless struggle against the Evil One, he humbly maintained that it was not he who freed people, but they themselves. How? By frequently approaching the sacraments. By participating in Holy Mass. By fervently living out Eucharistic adoration. And by taking up every day the most effective weapon against every kind of evil, both physical and spiritual: praying the Holy Rosary. He pointed out to everyone that “without a true conversion founded on personal commitment, it is very difficult to receive the grace of deliverance.”
Hence the need to educate people in a healthy spiritual life, to defend themselves against the devil’s attacks; to teach them to recognize and correct certain risky behaviors; to convert to the Gospel and live a mature faith, encouraged by the Word of God, which reassures us: “The powers of the underworld shall not prevail” (Mt 16:18).
Don Amorth has the undisputed merit of having brought a fact to the Church’s attention: “Whoever does not believe in the devil does not believe in the Gospel!” He spoke about it openly, providing every means to defend oneself against the influence of the Evil One and to live in communion with Jesus: “Life is a continual struggle with evil, and to fight, one must know. To defeat an enemy whose main weapon is deceit, full knowledge is half the victory. The love obtained through prayer is the triumph.”
The new volume “The Devil. Knowing and Defeating Him” presents Father Gabriele Amorth’s passionate ministerial experience through the teachings that the famous exorcist left us in his books, interviews, conferences, and especially in the catecheses he delivered over the microphones of Radio Maria.
This is not simply a book by Father Gabriele Amorth, but the extraordinary account of a man who fought the devil face-to-face, fearlessly, with the awareness that Christ’s strength was within him and was stronger than any evil. Line by line, his experience vividly emerges, together with that of priests and laypeople engaged in the fight against Satan.
Since the famous Pauline exorcist liked to conclude many of his talks by making room for the concrete and pressing questions of the people he answered promptly, this volume revisits the questions and answers of greatest interest in a revised and updated form. And these are questions that each of us has asked at least once: Who really is the devil? How can I recognize the actions of the Evil One? What is an exorcism, and how does it take place? How can I confront the Evil One?
Thus, in this rapid succession of questions and answers, he addresses important, crucial, and delicate topics such as occultism, exorcisms, magic, infestations, superstition, freedom, the devil’s actions, curses, possession, prayer… but above all, he gives every reader “the weapons of faith” to fight the devil and defeat him.
The teaching of Father Gabriele Amorth is still alive and relevant. Even today, his work remains a reliable source from which to learn how to recognize the devil’s actions and the strategies for defeating him.
