Though the Vatican has denied that Pope Francis exorcised a man in St Peter’s Square on Pentecost Sunday, debate continues over whether the blessing he gave could be classed as an exorcism.
After celebrating Mass, the Pope blessed several people in wheelchairs. When he held his hands on one man’s head, the man shuddered and then slumped in his seat.
Several reporters speculated that the Pope had conducted an exorcism — a suggestion that was strengthened when TV2000, a television station owned by the Italian Catholic bishops, asked several exorcists to watch a video clip of the incident and they concluded: “It was a prayer of liberation from evil or a real exorcism”.
But the Vatican said otherwise. The director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, said the Pope had intended simply to give a blessing.
“The Holy Father had no intention to perform any exorcism,” he said. “Instead, as he frequently does for the sick and suffering persons who approach him, he simply meant to pray for a suffering person who was presented to him.”
The Mexican priest who accompanied the man blessed by the Pope agreed. On his Facebook page, Father Juan Rivas said Pope Francis “prayed over a possessed person. Since no one heard the words he said, and he was right in front of me, we can say he recited a prayer for liberation, nothing more.”
But the exorcist for the diocese of Rome disagreed. Father Gabriele Amorth said Pope Francis’ act “was an exorcism all right and if Father Lombardi denies this, he clearly does not have a clue”.
Father Amorth then revealed that the man concerned — a 43-year-old Mexican husband and father named Angelo, who was incorrectly described in some reports as a boy — had later come to him.
The exorcist said he had ascertained that the man was possessed by four demons and “I performed a long exorcism on him today”.
Father Amorth said the man’s need for the Pope’s “prayer of deliverance” was related to the decriminalisation of abortion in Mexico — confirming a statement by Father Rivas, who said Mexicans had returned the country to “the pagan times of the Aztecs with their human sacrifices”.
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Pope Francis prays over a sick boy in St Peter’s Square (video)
Image: Vatican Insider