Vatican Excorcist & Pope Benedict XVI: On Hitler & The Devil

Fr. Gabriel Amorth, Rome’s chief exorcist, made headlines a few months back when he said that he had no doubt that Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin were possessed by the devil. The headlines caused some controversy, because some people thought that, by saying these men were possessed, Fr. Amorth was thereby absolving them of personal responsibility.

Fr. Amorth has been pressed for some clarification on the matter, and he is very forthcoming in the answers quoted in a recent article in the National Catholic Register.

Here is the article: Vatican exorcist: Hitler Knew the Devil

Here are some quotes that caught my attention:

Regarded as the Church’s most experienced and prominent exorcist, Father Amorth warned Vatican Radio listeners Aug. 27 that the devil can possess not only individuals but also entire groups and populations.

“I am convinced that the Nazis were possessed by the devil,” he said. “If one thinks of what was committed by people like Stalin or Hitler, certainly they were possessed by the devil. This is seen in their actions, in their behavior and in the horrors they committed.”

After his comments were made public, some accused the veteran exorcist of making excuses for the atrocities perpetrated by the two infamous dictators, and essentially of defending them by using the “devil-made-me-do-it” excuse.

“It absolves the Nazis from their crimes,” Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles told “NBC News.” “It says they’re really great people. Up in heaven, some celestial evil angel caused it all.”

The article then quotes Pope Benedict XVI on the subject:

Before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger also spoke about the influence of the demonic in the life of Hitler — but explained that it absolved nothing.

In the Book God and the World (Ignatius, 2002), he is quoted treating the subject at some length.

“There are reliable reports by eyewitnesses that suggest he had some kind of demonic encounters,” the future Pope said of Hitler. “He would say, trembling: ‘He was there again,’ and other such things. We cannot get to the bottom of it. I believe one can see that he was taken into the demonic realm in some profound way, by the way in which he was able to wield power and by the terror, the harm, that his power inflicted.”

On October 17th, Fr. Amorth stands by his statements from this past August:

In an interview with the Register Oct. 17, Father Amorth restated his belief that Hitler was possessed and explained that this would not have diminished his culpability:

When asked if he still believed the dictators were possessed, he answered, “Certainly,” and denied that the statement abrogates culpability.

“It’s both,” he said. “They have full responsibility for their actions, but they have followed the promptings of the devil — and they have done so willingly. Therefore they are guilty, completely responsible.”

When asked if there were any leaders today who could be similarly possessed, Father Amorth said there are “many who listen to the temptations of Satan and follow him.” Because of that, he said, “the world goes bad.” Instead of leading others “towards peace and well-being, the world moves towards war and unease,” he said.

Finally these additional quotes from Pope Benedict XVI are presented:

Cardinal Ratzinger addressed the question when journalist Peter Seewald asked him about it.

“What about Hitler?” asked Seewald. “Was he, as many people think, ‘Satan incarnate’? Sartre once said, ‘The devil is Hitler, that is, Nazi Germany.’”

Cardinal Ratzinger answered: “On the one hand, Hitler was a demonic figure. One only need read the history of the German generals, who time and again made up their minds, just for once, to tell him to his face what they really thought, and who were then yet again so overcome by his power of fascination that they did not dare to. But then, when you look at him from up close, this same person who has a demonic fascination about him is really just a quite banal hoodlum.”

He pointed out that “the power of evil makes itself at home precisely in what is banal” because, when it comes to evil, “the greater it is, the more pitiful.”

“Hitler was able to foresee demonic situations,” he said. “For instance, I once read an account of how the preparations were made for Il Duce’s (Italian dictator Benito Mussolini) visit to Berlin. Those who were responsible for various aspects of it made their suggestions, and after a long time he said: ‘No, none of that is right. I can see how it ought to go.’ And in a kind of ecstasy he delivered a lecture about it, and it was all done like that. That is to say, there is some kind of demonic power that takes possession somehow, that makes what is banal great — and makes what is great appear banal — and above all makes it dangerous and destructive.”

Before the devil can destroy us, he must first deceive us. He must convince us to squander our inheritance as children of God by making ephemeral pleasures more appealing than the security of an eternal reward. He must convince us to forsake Goodness Itself in order to possess fleeting, imperfect reflections of goodness.

Because Satan is a creature, he has nothing to offer us. Satan is not the Creator. He is not the Most High God, and this galls him. His only "creation" is sin, which is essentially a negation of the good. Evil is a privation, a corruption of the good; a lacking of goodness where that goodness should be present. The devil cannot create anything good. All he can do is distort the good things God has made, perverting them and corrupting them, and twisting them in his own perverse image, causing them to resemble his own corrupted nature.

What he offers us (through sin) are legitimate goods that are gifts from God, but gifts which are stolen in such a way as to distort their goodness and prevent them from leading us to God (as they were intended). He sells us a lie.

When Pope Benedict XVI talks about how the devil "makes what is banal great — and makes what is great appear banal — and above all makes it dangerous and destructive”, he is talking about the devil's art of deception. He is a master at marketing who puts Madison Avenue to shame.

If we saw God, face to face, as do the angels and the saints in heaven, it would be inconceivable that we could ever, even for an instant, be tempted to fix our gaze upon anything else as comparable in Goodness, Beauty, or Truth. All other goods would be seen as mere reflections of His Divine goodness. All beauty would pale in comparison with His Beauty, and would be understood as a reflection of His Glory that is meant to honor Him. It would never even enter our minds that such reflections could be a substitute for Him (especially since all creatures are finite and all created goods with the exception of the human soul are temporal in nature).

No creature can ever be created as worthy of the Divine nature, and love, real love, must be a free, responsible choice. So the angels and the human race were offered a choice. The angels chose their lot, and because they know all things they consider intuitively and in a way that is very near the totality of their essence, they are incapable of making a choice without considering all aspects of such a choice beforehand (including all the consequences). Their choices are not made in ignorance, and they can never be presented with new information (because they have already considered every aspect of any choice they make). Therefore, an angel can never change his mind. That is why human beings can repent their choices and angels cannot.

To destroy us, the devil deceives us. Because of concupiscence, our inheritance due to Original Sin, we are inclined to take the path of least resistance. Our lower passions war against right reason, and an intellect that has already been darkened, and a will that has already been weakened, struggles against the baser desires of our nature.

We must keep our eyes fixed upon the prize and not succumb to the deception of the devil, forgetting God and living only for the here and now. We must fight constant distractions and vapid entertainments in order to see past the illusion that the banal offers us anything lasting or worth forgetting that we are only here for a time, and that time is a test of love, a time of choosing. If we choose the gifts, while rejecting the Giver, we will be left with neither. If we use the gifts wisely and in a way ordered towards eternal union with the Giver, we can have a measure of happiness in this life, the peace of an unburdened conscience, and eternal happiness with God (our true goal) at the end of our time as wayfarers in this world.

Some final quotes to consider:

Nos fecisti ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te.

(Translation: Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.)

Too late I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Too late I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.

~ St. Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 - August 28, 430)

Any thoughts?

Comments

[Jeff Miller]

I wish they would stop misrepresenting him. There is no such thing as either the Vatican's exorcist or Rome's chief exorcist. No such job titles or positions exist. Fr. Gabriel Amorth is one of several exorcist in Rome, he is just the most famous one.

[skeetor]

this is not news to me, regardless of the mans title, I grew up in a parish whose pastor was a firm believer in the "posessed by a demon"(devil, etc...). Not an exageration of his views that anything from stereo systems and chairs to grandparents should be regularily exorcised. Most definately Hitler would fall into this catergory.

[Some Day]

Most demonic possesion would appear to be voluntary and "symbiotic". That does not excuse. Just like saying I was "high"when I killed him is not a defence but an agravant, then so is induced possesion

[lucia gomes]

Dear sir Ihave a evil spirit in my house and i want the tel no email address and residence address of fr gabriel amorth to do the binding work in my house in India (Mumbai).please reply as soon as possible yours sincerely lucia gomes

[James M Essig]

Hi Some Day;

In order for an action to be mortally sinfull, three conditions must be met. First, the act must be freely committed. Second, the perpetrator must know of the serious nature of the act. Third, the act must have been committed after full reflaction on its serious sinfullness.

Thus a crazed or possessed murderer may in some cases not be culpable whereas a young married Catholic couple, or a homosexual who indulges in the use of artificial contraception or homosexual acts, respectively, after having known the Catholic teachings on such matters and having the full wieght of proper religious inhibitions behind them can not be lightly excused of mortal sin.

[James M Essig]

Hi Some Day;

I apologize if the interpretation of my above post seems overly dismissive of Hitler's actions. This is not my belief in any sense of the word. Nor did I mean to rank common sexual practices to behavior worse than Hilter's. This is also not my belief in any sense.

As I was typing the above message, for some reason my computer screen was having fits and although my computer was still on, for some reason I thought I would loose my post.

So I thought I would quickly upload what I have so as to not totally lose my post. I should have waited or not posted at all since the post was incomplete.

Anyhow, what I was about to post is quite lengthy and a little off topic as are some of my recent RCB posts and so I will not post the comments.

I posted several long post over the past few weeks and so it is time to give other people air time.

I will be away from posting at RCB for a while.

Kind Regards;

Jim

[Rosie Davis]

It is said......
What is an .......IMPASSE ADULTERATE.......?
One who can negotiate/broker a deal with both God & Satan so as to,
do/have/accomplish ones desires/ambitions in life & yet enter The Gates of Heaven at the end.
Dare to re-neg on such a deal & all hell comes upon your life & death & even your blood-line forward.
The belief that a family is cursed & for generations might be that Great Grand Uncle promised you all away so as to have a perfect life according to his tastes ?.....
Hitler was assuredly a Slippery Sucker & illiterate they say......