As a noob to traditional Catholicism, I just heard about Fr. Gabriele Amorth yesterday. I'm nearly certain that all of you already know of him, but in case someone doesn't, he was one of (if not the!) final valid exorcists in Rome, having died in 2016. He was known to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms.

Aside from the sheer badassery of being known as the man the Devil feared, he had many outspoken views in a time where we need them most. He openly and staunchly condemned the Harry Potter books and the New Rite of Exorcism, openly stated that the Devil was running rampant in the Vatican ruling a false church, and was always willing to reject the spirit of the times. It was even his work that encouraged William Friedkin to create the popular horror film, The Exorcist, as the director confirmed upon making a docuмentary, The Devil and Father Amorth, in 2017 (which was, unsurprisingly, panned by critics). Finally, and perhaps most awesomely, he was also said to mock the Devil at the beginning of every exorcism, by thumbing his nose at him.

Now, I'm not trying to downplay Fr. Amorth by calling him cool. As a young man who grew up in a secular culture outside of the Church, though, he's an inspiration! Perhaps he did not fully understand the crisis in the Church- sedevacantists, for example, would certainly say he didn't- but he helped to fight the Devil in his own way at a time where the Church needed it most. He was truly a champion for the faith.

Pray for us in our fight with the Devil, Fr. Amorth!

Can you tell us what you mean by "extremely cool"?

Do you mean the literal sense as in remote and distant, or very calm, or do you mean the say he was a "neat guy"?

If Fr. Amorth strode into a large crowd, all he’d have to do is stare them down for a few seconds.  The unrepentant would run, the innocent or naive would remain, and a few of the most wicked would throw themselves at his feet begging for mercy.

The sad fact is that Fr. Amorth's "exorcisms" were a complete and utter sham by the last years of his life as evidenced by the film "The Devil and Father Amorth." What you will find is a 30-something adult woman who is being loosely restrained by her father and her live-in boyfriend in a small room with some 10-15 friends and family members looking on while Fr. Gabriel plays Dr. Phil with the spirits. Director William Friedkin, who directed the "Exorcist" in 1973 (itself a massive occult induction), made sure to add cheap audio effects to the woman's voice when the demon was allegedly speaking. This "docuмentary" is terrible but it is solid proof that Fr. Amorth cannot ever be mistaken for a true traditionalist or even a conservative. It's clear to me that the Devil was running the show over there.  



As for Malachi Martin, well it's time to throw that one out too. The man was a warlock. On top of working for the Powers That Be to ensure the prayer for the conversion of Jєωs was removed from Mass during the VII Council under the pen name Michael Serafian, Malachi was into some very new age garbage as proven through a long series of radio appearances.

Universal Salvation (you're saved and don't know it)

2:16:22 - 2:18:10

Bell:    "First time caller line, you're on the air with Doctor Malachi Martin, Hi."
Caller:  "Hello, Dr. Martin."
Martin: "Yes."
Caller:  "It's about 5 years ago I had a- in a weak moment,"
Martin: "Yes."
Caller:  "I had a ѕυιcιdє attempt."
Martin: "Yes."
Caller:  "Uh, it seemed like there were forces in the house-"
Martin: "Uh-huh."
Caller:  "-that saved me,
Martin: "Uh-huh."
Caller:  "Ok?"
Martin: "Uh-huh."
Bell:     "Where are you sir?"
Caller:  "I'm in Vancouver"
Bell:     "Vancouver, Canada. Alright."
Martin: "Ok, ok."
Caller:  "Now, about 6 months before that we were doing a bunch of uh, not Ouija, but the same sort of thing and-"
Martin: "Yes, yes."
Caller:  "And it seemed as though there were forces"
Martin: "Yes."
Caller:  "And it seemed as if I was saved I've had nothing but bad luck since this time. Can you tell me uh-"
Martin: "Well, if you have dabbled in the Ouija Board seriously and if you have dabbled in any occult, there's no doubt about that, you're dealing with occult forces, Then you may have some attachments that you don't like, spiritual attachments an evil spirit.
and you want to get rid of them."
Caller:  "Yes."
Martin: "And you want to get a good priest who can get rid of them for you, it's very hard to get rid of them yourself but a good priest can do that."
Caller:  "I am not a- I'm not a Catholic or..."
Martin: "It doesn't matter."
Caller:  "It doesn't matter?"
Martin: "It doesn't matter, you're a human being and you were redeemed by Christ whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not."

His take on Remote Viewing

1:54:50 - 1:58:03

Martin: "The fact is, Michael, that Hitler's people and we follow him, we discovered that there are powers in human beings, latent powers that can be activated with training and, that's the first point. The second point is that those powers, the latent powers that can be activated with a special, very specialized training, those powers are those we associate with a preternatural condition like telekineses, telepathy, ah-"
Corbin: "Remote viewing?"
Martin: "Yeah. There's a whole list of things, of powers, psychic powers as we call them-"
Corbin: "Mmm-hmmm."
Martin: "They can be developed and they affect the physical person."
Corbin: "Are they innate in human beings or they an agency of this 'possession'?
Martin: "N-n-n-no-no. They're innate because you see what we have is a torn nature."
Corbin: "But these forces or powers can use them against us."
Martin: "Well, that's a big leap. But what the point I'm making is that our human nature is not in it's natural condition. It is some terrible depravation. We call it Original Sin in the Christian Church."
Corbin: "Uh-huh."
Martin: "Um, but the power in there as it were latently, they are now you see, if you look at the question of the (inaudible) if you believe demons exist, there are demonic angels, angels that have been demonized. They are not supernatural they have nothing supernatural about them. Nor are they natural. They are on what we call the 'middle plateau.'"
Corbin: "They're stuck in between..."
Martin: "The 'middle plateau' is the plateau on which what they exercise their psychic gifts. And what you find about possessed people, genuinely possessed people, is they have extraordinary psychic gifts. Extraordinary! And they're revoked by their master or their familiar or whatever form their demon possessing them takes. Um, now they have found that training these latent powers is very useful for certain types of special forces operations. But one side effect of the whole thing was to end up with phenomena that mimic possession so closely it is possession. And the rationale, it's only rationale behind that is that anything you have must be for the glory of God, the glory of Christ and serve the salvation of men."
Corbin: "And if it's not, it's serving Lucifer..."
Martin: "And if it's not you're serving Lucifer."
Corbin: "Very interesting."
Martin: "So, you know uh, that's the difficulty and I-I-I, the saddest thing I can ever find and I've met so often in the last 30, 40 years is people whom I know are being lead out of all salvation, out of all grace, out of all human hope by their psychic gifts being developed-"
Corbin: "Wow."
Martin: "-by a familiar."

Witchcraft can be used for good

1:29:05 - 1:30:53

Witch:  "I've been a practicing Wicca for about 30 years plus and Father Martin there sounded so in touch with everything! Um, I was wondering if I could ask him a couple of questions."
Bell:     "Go ahead!"
Martin: "Go ahead, maam!"
Witch:  "Alright, uh Father?"
Martin: "Yes!"
Witch:  "Would you say that things have been going kinda crazy in the world since the Catholic Church broke with tradition?"
Martin: "Yes."
Witch:  "Uh would it be better if the Church went back to the old tradition?"
Martin: "Yes, but I think now that's impossible we can't go back, unfortunately. What will happen will be some new form, but unfortunately, ah see unfortunately you can see my prejudice there, it will be bedlam but they can't. They've gone too far."
Witch: "Yeah, ok 'cause um, at one time I was a Catholic, matter of fact with my religion I pulled some of my favorite saints into it too. Because as you know, with Wicca we encompass a lot of different religions."
Martin: "I know you do, I know you do. But that's alright, provided you honor Christ and..."
Witch:  "Yeah, Oh yes, oh yes. It's a strange combination, uh but as most Wiccas find a place that's comfortable for themselves.
Martin: "Mmm hmm, mmm hmmm."
Witch:  "I've started a couple of covens and that was one of the main things that I would present to the people is for them to find a place for them that was comfortable."
Martin: "Yeah."
Witch:  "And in Wicca we really don't have black and white it's just an easy way to explain what we do."
Martin: "Yes that's- I agree with that. We have to use that as a way of denominating things, you know?"

Later in the same interview Art Bell reads an email from a concerned Catholic listener:
2:07:03 - 2:09:08

E-mail: "Fr. Martin, I'm a Catholic, respect you greatly but you said something that was a bit disquieting. An earlier caller identified herself as not only someone who practices Wicca but she said that she had left the Catholic Church. You said that was okay, what she was doing was okay as long as she honored Christ. Correct me if I'm wrong or please clarify what you meant. How can it be okay that she left the True Church for a pale imitation?"
Martin: "Well, I don't think she left the True Church. That's the point. From what she was saying it seems to me that she was deserting the organization as such, but if she honors Christ and honors His mother, and prays, and is a good person morally, she has no more left the Church than I have. What she is talking about is the organization which she found abhorrent for some reason or other."
"And of course it's not- if she had said to me 'No, I practice Wicca and I worship the devils or worship idols or I worship this world and, no, I don't have any belief or attachment to the Lord Jesus or to, as you call Him, or to the Virgin Mary or the angels', that would be a different story. But you can't say you've left the Church when you honor these people and when you live a moral life. She has some reason for saying that.
"I know so many people Art, who will tell me 'I absolutely hate the Catholic Church's organization, its clergy, its bishops, its garbage' and then I find that they're very good people! It's just that something bad hit them. They were maltreated, or unjustly treated, or they were scandalized, but they're still within the Church of Christ. He still loves them. They belong to Him still."
Bell:     "They don't have to be in the organization to be with Him?"
Martin: "Not absolutely, they should be. If from some accident, personal accident, they exit from the formal connection with the organization, they still belong to Christ."

Also from the same interview: Werewolves for Christ!
1:52:14 - 1:52:36

Caller:  "Is it possible for a person to be a lycanthrope and not be evil?"
Martin: "Yes, it is possible. Within the framework of your question I must say yes, it is possible. It is possible."
Caller:  "In other words, can lycanthropy be kind of a gift?"
Martin: "Yes it can be and like everything else it can have a good purpose or an evil purpose."

Croixaxialist,

You're certainly right about Fr. Martin's lack of trustworthiness.  However, I wanted to address the first example you gave of theological unorthodoxy.  This is the example where Martin told a non-Catholic to seek out a priest for exorcism, and when the man said he was non-Catholic, Martin said that it didn't matter because Christ's died on the cross for him whether he believes it or not.
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Fr. Martin's statement here is perfectly orthodox, and indeed to dissent from what he said would be terribly unorthodox (not of course on Martin's own authority, but simply because he is stating Catholic dogma about the redemption).  The Catholic dogma is that Christ redeemed all men, without any exception whatsoever, even including the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom Pope Pius IX said was redeemed in a more sublime way than those of us born with sin (indeed, the medieval/scholastic controversy over the Immaculate Conception boiled down to this exact point: how could the BVM be immaculately conceived without undermining St. Paul's doctrine that Christ's redemption was universal to all mankind?).  Universal salvation (i.e., the notion that the merits of the passion are communicated without exception to everyone ever born, in a manner efficacious to effect salvation) is certainly contrary to Catholic doctrine.  But universal redemption is not just something that Catholics can believe, but something they must believe.
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Additionally, non-Catholics can and are exorcised (Bishop McKenna, for instance, performed various exorcisms of non-Catholics).

The key phrase here is that it "doesn't matter." Given the context of what he was talking about and in light of his views of "belonging" to the Church, I think we can safely consider his statement as referring not to the Atonement of Christ but a validation of the man's derelict state and an invitation to a rather ineffective exorcism. He didn't even ask the man if he was baptized! It may be possible to perform an exorcism on a non-Catholic, but to say one's membership in the Church "doesn't matter" is abhorrent. Of course it matters! Especially when the possessed has their will aligned properly with the Church and has the supreme benefit of, or at least the access to, the grace of the sacraments. Without membership into the Church, how could one even hope to keep the demons away the moment the ritual ends?

That is one dismissive little weasel of a man. Unrepentant to the end? Hard to argue!

I have one of Fr. Amorth's books that I bought years ago. He says some good things in it, such as explaining the fallen angels, but he commended the Charismatic movement, and said that they do a lot of good. The Charismatics tend to really focus on the problem of good vs. evil, to the point of sometimes being obsessed. Fr. Ripperger has said that the most serious case of demonic possession that he performed an exorcism on was a man who was a Charismatic. 

Yes, the modernists speak enough truth to get you to swallow the lie.

Yes, that's pretty much how Modernism works. After awhile, people get used to it, as if it's normal.

Bishop McKenna is certainly trustworthy.  And Our Lord healed 9 lepers but only one came back to offer thanksgiving and become his disciple.  So exorcising non-Catholics appears to be possible but maybe not too terribly fruitful.