Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016) was a renowned exorcist in Rome and a priest of the Congregation of San Paolo. He is internationally recognised as the world’s greatest exorcist. In his book, An Exorcist Explaining the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels (2016) he discusses the importance of Mary vis-à-vis exorcisms and predicating it on the various Marian dogmas and doctrines, which again shows why Mariology is not a minor issue, but is a true “dividing line” between Roman Catholics and Latter-day Saints (and others):
Mary, Mediatrix of All
Graces
"In the end my Immaculate Heart will
triumph": Mary's prophecy at Fátima reassures us that besides the
body-to-body [struggle] with the demon the exorcism), the earthly anticipation
of the eschatological struggle between the Mother of God and the ancient dragon
(cf. Rev. 12) also has her attention. Despite rampant sin and despite the man
who abandons God, considering him only a useless impediment to his own
unrestrained liberty, the tribulations of the Church will have an end. And the
finale will be good: God will have the last word on history. For this reason,
Mary is always invoked during the exorcism; although, to tell the truth, the
old ritual did not include an invocation to her. Adding her to the ceremony is
a practice I borrowed from Father Candido, however. It is a necessity, and the
current ritual has gotten around this deficiency. During the prayer, the priest
repeatedly invokes her intercession and her powerful protection. Without her,
little is accomplished in the struggle against Satan. it is always God who
liberates one from his influence—it is good to keep and repeating it—bus His
ear is especially attuned to the mediation of Mary, the Mother of His Son.
What role does the Virgin have in the liberation
of the obsessed? Mary, as the Hail Mary says, is "full of grace." She
is the mediatrix of God's every grace for all men, particularly for those who
suffer much, including those who suffer from spiritual evils. The enmity
between Mary and Satan—proclaimed solemnly by God in the first book of Genesis
(Gen. 1:3-15) and manifest in the eschatological struggle with the dragon—makes
her the number-one enemy of the demon. She will be the one to crush his head at
the end of time.
The help of the Virgin, however, goes beyond the
exceptional situations of the demoniacs. In man's every struggle against Satan
and sin, it is always she who represents the extraordinary and the
irreplaceable. The demon is terrified of her. In order to be very clear, I wish
to cite an episode at which I personally assisted many years ago. During an
exorcism, Father Candido asked the devil a question: "Why are you more
afraid when I invoke Mary than when I implore God Himself?" He responded:
"I feel more humiliated being conquered by a simple creature than by God
Himself."
Mary is a creature like us, but, having been
elevated to be the Mother of God, she has extraordinary power. Also for this
reason I ask the persons who assist me to pray the Rosary. It is the most
advisable prayer in that context, prayed individually, not aloud and
collectively, as it is often prayed in church before Mass, so as not to disturb
the exorcism. I would add that the Rosary, being the prayer most appreciated by
our Lady, is an extremely powerful arm against the devil, and I warmly
recommended it to anyone suffering from spiritual evils. This prayer has, in
fact, a strong power of protection and liberation from evil. One day Sister
Lucia, a seer of Fátima, revealed that God has conferred a power to great on
the Rosary that there is no evil—personal, family, or social—that cannot be
defeated by its recitation with faith.
What, then, can we ask of Mary in the Rosary?
There is nothing else to ask of her except for the gift of peace—for the world
certainly, but also for ourselves; for the serenity of our heart, so that we
may be able to accept our crosses, so that we may know how to recognize the
gifts that we receive each day from the good God and thank Him for this. It is
also important to pray the Rosary together as a family in order to invoke peace
in our homes, and in the world. Wars and the division of souls are unequivocal
signs of the presence of the devil, which, not by chance, in Greek means
"divider."
I also recall that on March 25, 1984, St. John
Paul II consecrated the world to Mary. It was a very important gesture in an
epoch in which communism still represented an explicit threat to Christianity.
During an exorcism, I asked an unclean spirit who was persecuting someone why
he had so much hatred toward John Paul II. He replied: "Because he has
ruined our plans." I imagine that he was referring to the fall of communism.
At Fátima, when the Virgin affirmed that her "Immaculate Heart will
triumph," what could it mean if not to trust in the Lord and her maternal
help always—particularly before the danger of discouragement that lies in wait
for everyone but, above all, for those suffering from evil spirits, because
often waiting for the results can seen interminable. It also means that, with
the help of Mary, we must continuously engage ourselves in converting to God,
so that we will know how to do His will—that is, to pardon and to love—and so
that we may know how to make every event an occasion of sanctification and the
realization of God's plan for us. Mary beings us to Jesus, because initially
she allowed the Holy Spirit to touch her intimately, permitting her to generate
Jesus in time. (Gabriele Amorth, An Exorcist Explaining the Demonic: The
Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels [Manchester, N.H.: Sophia
Institute Press, 2016], 122-24)
