The name of Father Gabriele Amorth is once again on everyone’s lips for the imminent premiere of The Pope’s Exorcist, a film with Russell Crowe in which the Australian actor represents him.

Amorth, who died in 2016 at the age of 91, was the Vatican’s official exorcist for more than twenty years. He has repeatedly claimed to have performed more than 70,000 exorcisms during his long career.

His adventures have been narrated by himself in various autobiographical books, memoirs and both graphic and audiovisual interviews.

During his time in charge of this very particular area of ​​the Catholic world, the Italian was characterized by throwing questionable sentences. One of them had to do with yogathe famous traditional spiritual, physical and mental discipline originating in India, which itself is one of the six orthodox doctrines of Hinduism.

Both in the presentation of the film The Rite and in interviews published in The Telegraph and The Sunday Times, to name a few, Amorth maintained that “practicing yoga leads to evil”.

Gabriele, who also served as president of the International Association of Exorcists, disagrees with that discipline’s emphasis on meditation and liberation: “Yoga is the work of the devil. You think you stretch your mind and body, but it leads you to Hinduism. These Eastern religions are based on the false belief of reincarnation.”

Unusually, in his speech the father he compared practicing yoga to reading the Harry Potter books.

“They look harmless but both (yoga and Harry Potter) have to do with magic and that leads to evil.” For him, “behind Harry Potter is the signature of the king of darkness, the Devil”.

Who was Father Amorth?

Amorth was a renowned exorcist in Rome who officiated as such from 1986 to 2000. At first he worked under the tutelage of Father Candide Amantiniwhich he replaced after his death.

In 1990, Gabriele founded the International Association of Exorcists, which he spoke about in dozens of graphic publications such as “Tales of an exorcist”, “An exorcist tells his story” or “Exorcism and psychiatry”.

Some of his most resonant claims had to do with his idea that Adolf Hitler acted possessed or influenced by some evil demon.

To those who exercise the “charism of exorcism”, Amorth recommends that they be well regarded for their life of prayer, faith, acts of charity and judgment. Furthermore, he says they should rely and rely solely on God’s Word and traditional prayer, be completely detached from monetary worries, be deeply humble, and not hoard darkness.

Amorth worked as an exorcist entirely during his pontificate John Paul II.

As we anticipated, The Pope’s Exorcist arrives in Argentine cinemas on Thursday, a terrifying film inspired by his memoirs. It was directed by Julius Averythe director of Operation Overlord.