There was a real Pope's Exorcist who thought Hinduism and yoga were evil
Two-time Oscar winner Russell Crowe is dabbling in some interestingly campy projects as of late. The Gladiator star appeared as a road rage-fuelled stalker in 2020’s Unhinged and flaunted a strange Greek accent cameoing in last year’s Thor: Love and Thunder as the thunder god Zeus.
This Friday, the New Zealander is back in what seems like a formulaic yet nonetheless amusingly over-the-top horror: The Pope’s Exorcist. Crowe plays the titular character, an Italian catholic priest and exorcist named Gabrielle Amorth who claimed to have performed hundreds and thousands of exorcisms.
Who was The Pope’s Exorcist?
Despite its trailer ticking off the familiar tropes of an Exorcist or Conjuring-style Christian horror, The Pope’s Exorcist claims that it attempts to have some reality behind it as it is inspired by Father Gabrielle Amorth’s real-life memoirs that documented his exorcism experiences.
Crowe dabbles in accents again as he tries to retain Amorth’s Italian heritage in The Pope’s Exorcist. The film captures one particularly challenging case in his life that found him interacting with a demon who had possessed a young boy’s body. In both real life and in the movie, Amorth’s “top boss” is revealed to be the Pope.
In 1990, he and five other priests specialising in exorcisms, went on to found the International Association of Exorcists, an organisation that is still functional. Amorth continued performing exorcisms up to the 2010s before he finally breathed his last in 2016. He was 91.
Did Father Amorth serve under the Pope?
Amorth was appointed an exorcist of the Vatican in 1986. At the time, Pope John Paul II served as the head of the Catholic Church and Amorth performed many exorcisms for most of his tenure.
When asked if Satan or his forces tried to attack Vatican City, Amorth brought up a particular incident in 1981 when Turkish convict Mehmet Ali Ağca fled prison and shot and wounded the Pope.
How many exorcisms did Amorth perform?
While there is no way to ascertain the exact number of exorcisms that Amorth performed, the man himself had some overwhelming numbers to boast. By October 2000, he claimed to have performed 50,000. In March 2010, he increased the number to 70,000. And then, by May 2013, he amped it up to 1,60,000!
Amorth’s memoir An Exorcist Tells His Story revealed that these exorcisms included not just the cinematic way of driving out spirits but also brief prayers and rituals for the possessed victims. They could last from a few seconds to hours. Some victims could be helped in one go while some required multiple exorcisms.
Amorth thought yoga was Satanic!
Amorth was quite outspoken with his views on whatever he found anti-Christian or Satanic. And one of them was yoga. He believed that even if non-Hindus practiced yoga and similar meditation, it would lead them to Hinduism, which he claimed is a Satanic faith. In fact, as he said in a press event for the 2011 horror movie Rite,
Another controversial insight from that event was,
What was the Pope’s Exorcist’s favourite movie?
In what would be a very obvious choice, Father Amorth was a fan of The Exorcist.
In fact, The Exorcist director William Friedkin even featured one of Amorth’s high-profile cases in the documentary The Devil and Father Amorth.
Who is the Pope in The Pope’s Exorcist?
Even though John Paul II was the Pope for most of Amorth’s ministry, The Pope’s Exorcist features the Pope as a composite figure without any name or physical likeness. Franco Nero, the actor best known for playing the cowboy Django in the Italian western of the same name, plays the Pope sporting a white beard.
The last time a Pope had a beard was in the case of Pope Innocent XII, who reigned till 1700. So, beards definitely went out of fashion among the Popes in the last three centuries. The Pope’s Exorcist might have its fair share of horror cliches but it at least has a newer look for the Pope!
The Pope’s Exorcist is releasing India before the US
Interestingly, The Pope’s Exorcist is releasing in India a week before the US. It will be releasing on April 7, 2023, probably banking on the Good Friday holiday.