The Devil and Father Amorth

At the time I made the film, The Exorcist,

I had never seen an exorcism.

More than four decades later,

I witnessed the one you are about to see.

You asked me earlier,

- if I was ever gonna do anything else... - Right.

...about the devil,

- and you seem concerned... - Yeah.

...when you asked me that. Why were you concerned?

People ought to stay away from the subject as much as possible.

The more you open yourself,

to thinking about this stuff

and you start feeling about this stuff,

the more room you allow

for the supernatural

power of evil to come in.

There are more than 60 million people in Italy.

According to two of the leading newspapers,

and the major television channel,

500,000 Italians see an exorcist every year.

This woman is one of them.

Her name is Christina.

She's 46 years old

and lives 200 miles south east of Rome,

in a small mountain village.

She's an architect

that can't work.

She's said to be possessed

by the Devil.

Father Gabriele Amorth,

has been the exorcist for the diocese of Rome

for 31 years.

He has exorcised Christina eight times without success.

This will be her ninth.

In the fall of 1972,

I came to Georgetown,

here, in Washington D.C., to film The Exorcist.

The Exorcist is a novel by William Peter Blatty,

inspired by an event that took place

in 1949,

when Blatty was an undergraduate here at Georgetown University.

Right now we are on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

We're on the main campus, right by the front,

and in one of those classrooms,

I listened to a Jesuit Priest.

He was teaching a theology course, new testament.

Father Eugene Gallaghar began to

go off on a case of possession and exorcism and

that's where I first heard about possession.

On this quiet little street,

in this quiet town called, Cottage City, Maryland.

This is the house where the 1949 case began.

Where Luther and family

whose 14 year old son

was said to be possessed.

He was examined by doctors and psychiatrists,

who could not determine the cause of his disturbing afflictions.

And so, priests from the Catholic Dioceses,

in Washington D.C. were brought in to perform a series of exorcisms

at this very house.

The boy was later transferred to Alexian Brothers Hospital

in St. Louis,

where he was eventually liberated.

Bill Blatty believed in the truth of this case when he wrote his novel,

and later, his screenplay

of The Exorcist.

And so did I, when I directed the film.

And lo and behold, I then read it in the Washington Post,

and I was very excited about it.

And I thought, wouldn't it be absolutely marvelous

if one could write a non-fiction account...

of this.

Provided it was authentically something

paranormal and inexplicable.

What a tremendous re-affirmation of faith that would be.

There would be a fantastic...

well, what are we waiting for?

And...

many, many, many years later,

it all came back to me.

And I was determined

to write that story but as non-fiction.

And I finally was able to track down, with great difficulty,

the original exorcist in that particular case.

His name was, Father William Bowden.

He's a Jesuit.

He was very eager to help me.

And apparently, a promise of absolute silence

and confidentiality had been given to the family of the possessed boy.

And he asked that, that be lifted because this was a very very good cause.

It was very apostolic work that was going to be done, and

I went to the family, and they said no, they wanted no part of it.

Now I was more convinced than ever,

since they were not publicity mongers,

going on Heraldo, or whatever,

that this thing really had substance to it.

And, he utterly galvanized me, Father Bowden did, with one sentence in his letter.

At the bottom, after explaining how sorry he was that he couldn't help me,

and after pleading with me, "Please don't write about this case".

"Don't tell anything that I've told you."

He said, "One thing however I can tell you,

"the case which I was involved with was the real thing."

I had no doubt about it then,

I have no doubt about it now.

And that was all I needed.

This is the house at 36th and Prospect in Georgetown

that we used as the exterior of the McNeil house in the film.

Now, the house doesn't look today the way it looked back in 1972,

and that's because we had to build a false front

from the end of this house

to the end of the fence down there,

to bring the house closer to the steps.

Now, on the second floor of that false front

was the exterior of Regan's bedroom,

from which Father Karras could make his final leap.

These steps are just a few feet away from the house.

They are now officially known as, "The Exorcist Steps".

For me, the steps and Georgetown

are the spiritual home

of The Exorcist.

I've always been fascinated by the nature of good and evil.

And the possibility of demonic possession.

But the opportunity for me

to witness and film an actual exorcism,

came about 45 years after I had made the film.

And completely by accident.

Or was it providence?

Father Amorth, in his first memoir,

wrote about The Exorcist film

and he said it was his favorite movie.

I guess, of course.

He said that the, um,

special effects were a little over the top,

but he said that it helped people to understand his work.

And so, when I wrote asking if I could meet with him,

he immediately agreed.

At the age of 18,

Gabriele Amorth fought his first battle against evil

when he joined the Italian Resistance

against the fascist dictator, Mussolini,

and the Nazi alliance.

He was awarded the Medal of Liberation by the Italian Government.

But it was 10 years later,

before he found his calling

and was ordained a priest

in the society of Saint Paul.

Thirty years after that, in 1986,

he became the chief exorcist of Rome

and dedicated his life to helping those he believed were possessed.

Each morning, he would respond to the hundreds of letters he received every week

from around the world.

From those with spiritual diseases.

And he became one of the most beloved figures

in his native country.

He performed his first exorcisms

at the Cathedral of St. John Lateran.

At the complex know as the Church of the Holy Staircase.

These 28 marble steps,

now covered in wood,

are the steps that led up to Pontius Pilate's house.

They were brought to Rome in the forth century

and they can only be climbed on your knees.

Marian Luther climbed these steps on his knees

and heard a revelation,

a voice saying,

"The just shall live by faith."

Through this door, Father Amorth entered a small private chapel

where he conducted his exorcisms

until the noise drove away the faithful.

In April of 2016,

I came to Rome to interview Father Amorth

for a magazine.

At the end of our conversation,

I asked him if he might ever allow me

to witness and film an exorcism.

Permission to do this had never been granted by the Vatican.

He took a moment

and then he said,

"Let me think about it."

A few days later, I heard back from him.

He would allow me to film Christina's ninth exorcism

on May 1st,

but, with no crew, no lights,

only a small video camera,

alone.

I had no idea what to expect.

But before witnessing Christina's exorcism,

I met a woman who had been successfully exorcised

by Father Amorth.

This is her story.

I first met Father Amorth ten years ago, when my sister need his help.

She was suffering a spiritual disease.

He asked to see her medical records.

He wanted to be sure it was a spiritual problem, not a psychological one.

I first realized there was something wrong when I went with a friend to a sanctuary.

When they began to celebrate the Mass,

I started having unusual symptoms.

I cried, my body shook...

and I fell into a trance.

She called and asked me to come to her home as soon as possible.