October 7, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Demonic disturbances that torment individuals, called diabolical obsession, “can lead to confusion about one’s gender,” “particularly in the young,” one of the world’s most famous exorcists wrote in a forthcoming book about Satan’s tactics.
Father Gabriele Amorth, who served as the chief exorcist of Rome, founded the International Association of Exorcists and performed tens of thousands of exorcisms throughout his life, died at 91 last month. In his new book, An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels, Amorth wrote that disordered ideas about gender, especially in children, can be a sign of torment from the devil.
Amorth warned that many of the devil’s “ordinary” temptations are passed off as “modern ideas” but really serve to “unhinge the principles of the faith.” These include abortion, same-sex “marriage,” euthanasia, divorce, and cohabitation, Amorth wrote.
“The loss of a sense of sin that characterizes our era helps Satan to act nearly undisturbed and, inducing man to sin, takes man progressively away from the love of God,” Amorth wrote. Suggestions like “everyone does it” applied to grave sins “weaken the consciences of men and women and lead them toward closing their hearts, egoism, lack of forgiveness, and doing everything for money, power, and sex.”
But “everything that seduces and enslaves souls leads to their death, which is Satan’s objective,” Amorth explained. Even though Satan’s promises of money, pleasure, and power seem alluring, they actually come at a terrible price and don’t allow those who choose them any peace, the late exorcist wrote.
The principle of total personal liberty, the promise of no obligation to anyone, and the denial that all truth comes directly from God are “seductive” in appearance but ultimately unfulfilling, especially for young people, Amorth wrote. These notions “delude” people “into thinking that life is a beautiful holiday” where “everything is permitted and where your ‘I’ does not recognize any limits regarding pleasure or enjoyment.” This is all because Satan wishes to lead people away from God, Amorth wrote.
Other ways that Satan infects and attacks the modern culture are certain types of music, which can provoke “violence, suicide, sexual perversion, and acts destruction against the state, the civic order, and the Church of God,” and games like Ouija boards.
“Today families are among the most targeted by the ordinary action of Satan,” according to Amorth. To counter this, he recommended all married couples pray together and extend the habit of prayer to their children.
Although An Exorcist Explains the Demonic was deeply disturbing, Amorth reminds readers of God’s victory over Satan and the many means of growing in holiness and fighting evil provided by Holy Mother Church in the Sacraments, sacramentals, and prayer. God loves us so much and wants to protect us.
Amorth’s book is a call to authentic love for neighbor and self and a manual that can help everyone embrace God’s protection and recognize Satan’s lies.
An Exorcist Explains the Demonic can be ordered here.
Father Amorth recommends the following prayer:
Prayer for Deliverance (approved for the laity)
My Lord, you are all-powerful, you are God, you are Father.
We beg you through the intercession and help of the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel
for the deliverance of our brothers and sisters who are enslaved by the evil one.
All saints of heaven, come to our aid.
From anxiety, sadness and obsessions,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
From hatred, fornication, envy,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
From thoughts of jealousy, rage, and death,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
From every thought of suicide and abortion,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
From every form of sinful sexuality,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
From every division in our family and every harmful friendship,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
From every sort of spell, malefice, witchcraft, and every form of the occult,
We beg you, free us, O Lord.
Lord, you who said, “I leave you peace, my peace I give you,” grant that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we may be liberated from every evil spell and enjoy your peace always, in the name of Christ, Our Lord. Amen.