by
Damien F. Mackey
Father Amorth also was the exorcist for the Diocese of Rome during St.
John Paul II’s pontificate so he has firsthand knowledge of at least three
exorcisms that the pontiff performed in his private chapel. The demons are
recorded as having a special indignation when his memory is invoked because St.
John Paul “ruined their plans.” Father Amorth believes the reason for this is
linked to Fatima and to the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary by St. John Paul March 25, 1984.
This pivotal
moment in human history was, sadly, and quite against the wishes of Heaven, about
half a century late in coming to its fulfilment - with dire consequences for
the world. This is what I wrote about it in:
The Five First Saturdays Of Our Lady of Fatima
The Consecration of Russia
We recall
that on July 13th of 1917, Our Lady of the Rosary had made this promise:
“I shall
come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the
Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If My wishes are fulfilled,
Russia will be converted and there will be peace …. If not ….”.
In June of
1929, Our Lady came and told [Sister] Lucia:
“The moment
has come when God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the
world, to make the Consecration of Russia to My Heart, promising to save it by
this means”.
In a letter
to her confessor, dated May 29, 1930, Sr. Lucia had explained that Our Lord had
made her feel his Divine presence in the depth of her heart and had urged her
to ask the Holy Father for the approval for the reparative devotion of the
first Saturdays. These are the words of the seer, as found in her Memoirs (#
404):
“If I am not
mistaken, the good Lord promises to put an end to the persecution in Russia if
the Holy Father deigns to make a solemn and public act of reparation and
consecration of Russia to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and orders all
the bishops of the Catholic world to do the same. The Holy Father must also
promise to approve and recommend the reparative devotion already indicated for
the cease of this persecution”.
Later,
through an interior communication, Our Lord complained to Sr. Lucia that the
consecration of Russia had not been made:
“They did
not heed to My request. They will repent like the king of France and will make
it, but it will be too late. Russia will already have spread its errors throughout
the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The Holy Father will
have much to suffer” ….
Our Lord’s
reference here to “the king of France” is an allusion to the promise that He
had made to Louis XIV through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Our Lord had promised
to give the king a life of grace and eternal glory, as well as victory over his
enemies, if he would consecrate himself to the Sacred Heart, let It reign in
his palace, paint It on his banners, and have It engraved on his coat of arms.
In 1792, after Louis XVI had been imprisoned in the Tower of the Temple, this
Divine request still had not been heeded. The king then made the vow to
consecrate himself, his family and his kingdom to the Sacred Heart of Jesus if
he regained his freedom, the crown, and royal power. It was too late; the king
left prison only for his execution.
Lucia,
writing again to her spiritual director on January 21, 1935, stated that:
“Our Lord
was quite displeased because His request had not been carried out” (ibid.).
In a further
letter to him, dated May 18, 1936, she told him of the following fascinating
exchange with Our Lord in the subject:
“… I have
spoken to Our Lord inwardly about the subject, and not too long ago I asked Him
why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making that
consecration”.
“Because I
want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as subsequently to extend the devotion to it and
place it alongside devotion to My Sacred Heart”.
“But, my God, the Holy
Father will not believe me, unless You move him with a special inspiration”.
“The Holy Father. Pray very
much for the Holy Father! He will do it, but it will be late. Nevertheless, the
Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia, who has been entrusted to it” ….
Sr. Lucia
wrote a further interesting letter to her spiritual director on August 18,
1940. Here is part of it:
“I suppose
it pleases Our Lord that there is someone who is concerned about His Vicar on
earth fulfilling His wishes. But the Holy Father will not comply with them now.
He doubts they are real, and explicably so. Our good Lord could show clearly
through some prodigy that it is He who is asking, but He takes this opportunity
to punish the world with His justice for so many crimes and to prepare it for a
more complete return to Him. The proof that He gives us is the special
protection the Immaculate Heart of Mary affords Portugal in view of the
consecration made to it [i.e. the 1931 consecration made by the Portuguese
bishops]” ….
[End of
quotes]
Over a period of about four decades, various popes would try to fulfil Heaven’s
urgent request. I discussed this in the following section:
Attempts to Achieve the Collegial Consecration
During 1942,
Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and in
1952 he consecrated Russia to her Heart. Whilst, undoubtedly, these were
valuable spiritual acts, they did not fulfil Our Lady’s conditions, because –
as Bishop Alberto Cosme do Amaral has noted (1989 “Youth for Fatima”
conference) - the Holy Father had made these consecrations alone as Vicar of
Jesus Christ on earth.
In 1964 Pope
Paul VI, when speaking to the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, renewed
Pope Pius XII’s consecration of the world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart.
This was in the presence of the world’s more than 2,000 bishops. Again,
however, the Pope made the consecration by himself, and not in union with the
world’s bishops.
On the 13th
of May, 1982, at Fatima, Pope John Paul II made a valiant attempt at the
collegial Consecration when he renewed Pope Pius XII’s consecrations of the
world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart. However, when the most reverend Sante
Portalupi, the Papal Nuncio to Portugal, visited Sr. Lucia at that time, she
told him that the Consecration made by John Paul II, like that of Pius XII, was
not according to the request of Our Lady, as it was not with all the bishops of
the world, each on the same day in a “collegial” Act of Consecration. (Taken
from SOUL magazine, Jan-Feb, 1985, p. 9). It was reported that many bishops did
not receive the Holy Father’s letter in time to join him in the act.
In 1984,
Pope John Paul II made another consecration. In preparation for it, the Holy
Father sent a letter to all the bishops of the world asking them to join him in
the collegial Consecration of the world as a renewal of the two acts of
consecration made by Pope Pius XII. “Implicit therefore”, according to Bishop
Amaral, “was the consecration of Russia” (op. cit., ibid.) Bishop Amaral’s
further explanation of this Consecration is an important one:
“Not only
was it to be a renewal of Pius XII’s two consecrations … but the very words of
Pope John Paul II mentioned those peoples ‘most in need’. Likewise, during the
actual consecration by Pope John Paul II there were a few moments of pausing
during which it was not clear what the Holy Father said. I thanked the Pope
later for consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Pope
added ‘and Russia’.”
Bishop Amaral
then explained that:
“A moral totality of the
world’s bishops joined the Pope in this collegial consecration, including
Eastern Orthodox bishops”.
For many
years now, Fatima devotées have been waiting and praying, and even sacrificing,
for this consecration to come about. Some may - and in fact do - find it hard
now to accept that it has happened. It seems almost too good to be true. But,
on the other hand, is it in fact so difficult to accept that the collegial
consecration had been carried out as requested? When John Paul II wrote to all
the bishops of the world as to what he was going to do on March 25th, 1984, and
what he wanted all the bishops to do with him, he specifically stated that he
was going to repeat the twofold consecrations of Pope Pius XII; the one of the
whole world of 1942 and the one of Russia of 1952.
We may perhaps
draw another analogy here.
Fr. William
Most, when discussing the Theology of the Mass in his excellent book on the
Second Vatican Council, Vatican II Marian Council, has this to say about the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being the renewal of Calvary:
“If the
renewal is twofold (i.e. offered up by Christ and by His Mystical Body the
Church) … then would it not be strange if the original, which the renewal
repeats, did not have a similar twofold structure? Really, if the renewal were
twofold, and the original not, then the renewal would be partly false. It would
no repeat fully what it should repeat”.
We may
reverse this logical reasoning with regard to the Consecration of 1984 as
follows:
“If the original is twofold
(i. e. consisting of two separate previous consecrations) then would it not be
strange if the repeat, which claims to repeat the original, did not have a
similar twofold structure? Really, if the original were twofold, and the repeat
not, the latter would be manifestly false …etc”.
But what is
being claimed by Church authorities in the case of this 1984 Act of
Consecration is that the 1952 Act of Consecration of Russia is being repeated.
This was made known to all the bishops. And by making it thus known to them,
the Holy Father was fully expressing his explicit intention with regard to
Russia’s being included, even had Russia not received a mention!
Fr. M.
Coelho, in his article “The Problem of the Consecration Again” (Fatima Family
Messenger, Oct-Dec, 1989) had added some further important points on the
subject. After noting that Lucia had believed “the request of Our Lady was not
perfectly accomplished” in the case of the earlier Consecration, that of 1982,
Fr. Coelho went on to add that, with regard to the Consecration of 1984:
“Now, in
fact, both the Bishop of Fatima and the Holy Father are convinced that the
consecration Our Lady asked for is perfectly made. The main reason is the
following. Nobody can prove that the words Our Lady used, asked for a
consecration of Russia alone; Russia is a part of the world. If the world is
consecrated, Russia becomes consecrated”. ….
Fr. Coelho
then proceeded to make a significant theological point: that it is ultimately
the Church – not the seers – who interprets apparitions.
“Theologically
the problem is clearer. The apparitions and their messages are charisms, i.e.
acts of the Holy Spirit. Their interpretation - to be correct - has to be also
an act of the Holy Spirit. He is the Soul of the Church. So, the only
interpretation is that of the Church and not that of the seers. Usually the
charism of seers consists only in receiving and telling the Church what they
saw and heard. Reliable people who recently saw Sister Lucia told me Sister
Lucia now says that the request of Our Lady is accomplished”.
And we can see already some
effects. Many things began changing after 1984” ….
[Comment:
Such as the dramatic fall of the Soviet Empire in 1989].
We turn now to
the actual words spoken by Sr. Lucia on the subject of the 1984 Consecration,
its outcome, and the response of the world’s bishops to it. The following
quotations of Sr. Lucia are taken from the article, “Sister Lucia says: ‘God
will keep His Word’” (in Fatima Family Messenger, pp. 9-11), by Maria do Fetal
Neves Rosa, who is a relative of Sr. Lucia and her friend of 40 years. When the
author put to Sr. Lucia this point:
“You know
some bishops did not unite with the Holy Father in the Consecration?” Sr. Lucia
replied:
“The responsibility
was theirs. Because of them God did not refuse to accept the Consecration which
as made [in 1984] as the one having been requested …. The request for the
Consecration was always an appeal for union. The Mystical Body of Christ [the
Church] must be united! The members of the same Body are united!” (Ibid).
Then her
interviewer pressed Sr. Lucia to be perhaps even more specific as to whether or
not the Consecration requested by Our Lady had been achieved, saying:
“People would like very
much to know that you, Lucia, are saying that the Consecration has now been
made and accepted by God”; to which Sr. Lucia gave the following reply:
“His
Excellency, the Bishop of Leiria, was here. He asked me and I told him, ‘Yes.
Now it was made’.”
The Apostolic Nuncio has
been here recently and asked me, ‘Is Russia now consecrated?’ ‘Yes. Now it is’,
I answered. The Nuncio then said, ‘Now we wait for the miracle’.
I answered, ‘God will keep
His word’.” ….
[End of quotes]
My view, no doubt
shared by others, that the 1984 Consecration was a most decisive event in the history
of humanity - an event of cosmic proportions, in fact - is also the view, most
unhappily received apparently, by exorcised demons. For I have just read this
review (http://catholicphilly.com/2017/02/us-world-news/culture/late-exorcists-words-lift-the-veil-on-the-demonic-satan/):
Late exorcist’s words lift the veil on the
demonic, Satan
….
By Allan F. Wright • Catholic News
Service • Posted February 24, 2017
“An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics
of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels”
by Father Gabriele Amorth with Stefano Stimamiglio.
Sophia Institute Press (Manchester, New
Hampshire, 2016).
145 pp., $14.95.
The world-renowned exorcist, Pauline Father
Gabriele Amorth, who died this past September, has left his wisdom and
experience in dealing with evil forces through this lucid and insightful
compendium gleaned from interviews published in Credere magazine over the past
few years.
Father Amorth founded the International
Association of Exorcists and performed tens of thousands of exorcisms in his
life. He is refreshingly direct throughout the book and doesn’t mince words
when it comes to the reality of the demonic, evil spirits and Satan.
In addition, his
writing conveys a sense of comfort and hope for those suffering from physical
and spiritual ailments such as possession, vexation, obsession and infestation,
all believed to stem from demonic forces.
Father Amorth attributes the rise on demonic
activity to the decline in faith in God. “When faith in God declines, idolatry
and irrationality increase; man must then look elsewhere for answers to his
meaningful questions,” he writes. The principle of total and complete liberty
apart from God and the denial of truth itself are indeed seductive in
appearance but ultimately fail to satisfy the “desires of the human heart.”
Young people in particular, he states, “are
easily deluded and are attracted to these ‘seductions’ which has been the
desire of Satan since the beginning.” Extreme danger arises when these demonic
spirits are invited into a person’s life and Father Amorth goes into detail on
specific cases he has personally encountered.
While we are all victims of seductions or
temptations, not everyone is a victim of what the late priest calls an
“extraordinary action of Satan.” Nor are extraordinary actions of Satan or evil
spirits the fault of those who are victim of these attacks, he affirms.
However, there are an incredible amount of
people who declare their allegiance to Satan, the “father of lies.” The casting
of spells and “infestations of the demonic” are in fact a reality and
chronicled in this book.
In chapter three, “The Cult of Satan and Its
Manifestations,” topics such as spiritism, Satanism, occultism, wizards,
fortunetellers, magic, piercings, tattoos and satanic music are addressed.
He states that the three rules of Satanism are:
“You may do all you wish, no one has the right to command you, and you are the
god of yourself.” One doesn’t need to be exposed to the satanic heavy metal
band Slayer to see those three elements alive and operating in our culture.
Although “An Exorcist Explains the
Demonic” is profoundly disquieting, Father Amorth reminds readers of God’s
victory over Satan and the tools for growing in holiness and fighting evil
provided by the church in the sacraments, sacramentals and prayer. God loves us
as a father and desires to protect us.
The reader will perhaps be surprised by the
amount of demonic activity that Father Amorth records in a matter-of-fact
manner and yet always with the confidence that God is stronger. He recalls
invoking with much success Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Father Amorth
also was the exorcist for the Diocese of Rome during St. John Paul II’s
pontificate so he has firsthand knowledge of at least three exorcisms that the
pontiff performed in his private chapel. The demons are recorded as having a
special indignation when his memory is invoked because St. John Paul “ruined
their plans.” Father Amorth believes the reason for this is linked to Fatima
and to the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by St.
John Paul March 25, 1984.
The book also relies on Scripture and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church for insights into heaven, hell, purgatory and
the rite of exorcism itself. Father Amorth makes a solid case for the need for
many more exorcists and even suggests that every seminarian be exposed to the
work of exorcism as an essential course of study.
This compendium is a suitable witness to both
the man and his struggle with evil.
Wright is an author and academic dean of
evangelization for the Diocese of Paterson and resides in New Jersey.
