Pope Leo XIII

The expression of Leo XIII was uncommon. Those that knew him knew something happened. The perplexed and astonished look of the Holy Father, fixed above the head of the celebrant at mass where he was, betrayed a vision. It was the Evil One. The episode occurred on a typical morning, when the Pope participated in a Eucharistic Celebration in thanksgiving, previous celebrated by him, as was custom.

Immediately after the shock, The Pope raised up and went quickly to his own desk. A half hour afterwards, he asked that they call the Secretary of the Congregation of Rites. What did Leo XIII mean? He ordered that every day at the end of mass is prayed the popular prayer invoking St. Michael the Archangel and asking the Virgin Mary in order that God precipitate Satan to Hell. According to the testimony of Cardinal Natalli Rocca, in 1946, it was Leo XIII himself who drafted it.

Padre José Antonio Fortea

The battle of the Popes against the enemy of God is  not from today. The issue returned to the fore in the last weeks due to a prayer done by Pope Francis to a man in St. Peter’s Square, allegedly possessed. For the renowned exorcist Fr. Gabriele Amorth, there is no doubt that it was an “exorcism”. Therefore, for the Press Office of the Vatican it was just a “prayer”. The declaration of the Holy See is corroborated by another exorcist, Fr. José Antonio Fortea, and also by even the priest who accompanied the Pope on that day of the prayer of the Pontiff, Fr. Juan Jivas, LC.

The man of 49 years, who appeared in the images that ran throughout the world called himself Angelo V. Casado and is father of two sons, for 14 years that he is a victim of demonic possession. Related by the Spanish Journal El Mundo, the demoniac experience began in 1999, during a bus trip to the house, in the Mexican state of Michoacán. “I felt that a strange energy entered the bus…I had the sensation that was opening my sides. I thought it was a heart attack,” he explained. Possessed by four demons, Angelo resolved to break the silence due to skepticism with persons reacting to these cases. “There are priests that do not believe in diabolic possession, they consider it a psychiatric problem. There are many possessed the end up in asylums and die without knowing what happened.”

Padre Gabriel Amorth

For Father Gabriele Amorth, exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, the possession of Angelo V. is not common,  but a possession message. He would have the obligation to ask the Mexican bishops to condemn the approval of abortion in Mexico, in reparation to the dead and to the offense against the Virgin with child of Guadalupe. According to Fr. Juan Rivas, LC, what accompanied Angelo for some time, 30 exorcisms had already been done, but none were successful. “The demons said that “The Lady” would not allow them to leave because the bishops did not complete the condition that is the act of reparation and expiation and the consecration to Mary Immaculate,”  said the priest in an interview on the web portal Zenit.

Angelo V. explained that he decided to meet with Pope Francis after a dream with the Pontiff, in which he appeared with a red chasuble, holding a censur and surrounded by cardinals. At first he did not give much attention to the dream, until he attended a mass of the Holy Father in which he appeared exactly as in the vision. “It entered my head: I have to go to Rome. In addition, in that time he was reading a book of Fr. Gabriel Amorth in which he said that Benedict XVI and John Paul II had done exorcisms to the possessed.

The exorcisms done by Benedict XVI and John Paul II also reverberated  through the media. In the case of the Polish Home, he would have done three, one of them being a few years before his death, in 2005. Despite the weight of 80  years and the illness of Parkinson’s, the confrontation between the Holy Father and the demon had occurred on the afternoon of September 6, 2002. The victim would be an italian woman of 19 years. Already Benedict XVI had confronted the hatred of the devil in one of the traditional General Assemblies on Wednesdays. According to Fr. Gabriel Amorth, upon perceiving the agitation of possessed, the German Pope looked at them and blessed them. “For the possessed this functions as an interior punch in their bodies.” said the exorcist in his book “The Last Exorcist.”

The scourge of the devil imposed on Angelo already caused him great dramas. “Fortunately, my sons never saw me in a trance, but know that I am sick,” he lamented to El Mundo. He confessed that “there are moments in which the demons appear that they are going to leave, but they never leave.” In a world each time more torn by materialism, the story of Angelo  is a stumbling block that reveals the existence of the Evil one and his ancient battle against the Vicar of Christ. And as he made clear in his first homily, in what depends on Francis, this fight still will continue for many years.

Fr. Padre Paulo Azevedo, Jr.

translated from Portuguese