When Pope Francis laid his hands on a young man in
a wheel chair, in St Peter’s Square, at the end of mass on Pentecost
Sunday, May 19, many people at first thought he had actually carried out
an exorcism. The Vatican flatly denied that, however, and said the pope had simply prayed over the man.
The priest who accompanied the man also confirmed this.
But one thing is certain, the man claims to be possessed by demons, and says he has been tormented in this state for the past 14 years. He revealed this May 22, in an exclusive interview in Rome with Irene Hernandez Velasco, the correspondent of the Spanish daily, El Mundo.
The man, Angel V., a 43 year-old Mexican from the state of Michoacán, is married with two young children, said some ten exorcists, included the renowned Roman exorcist – Father Gabriel Amorth, have tried but failed to liberate him from his terrible predicament.
Father Juan Rivas, who accompanied Angel to Rome and was with him when he met the Pope, confirmed all this when he spoke to El Mundo. He revealed that when the Pope met Angel, he told him, “Holiness, this person needs a blessing, he has had more than 30 exorcisms and the demons that live in him do not want to leave him.”
Fr Rivas, a member of the Legionaries of Christ, described what happened that Sunday. He said: “The Pope greeted Angel, and he kissed the pontiff’s ring and in that instant fell into a trance. The Pope then laid his hands on his head and at that moment a terrible sound was heard (from him), like the roar of a lion. All those who were there heard it perfectly well. The Pope for sure heard it, and his bodyguards heard it as did a child who was at our side. But in spite of this horrific roar the Pope did not let himself be moved; he continued with his prayer, as if he had faced similar situations before.”
Angel listened to what Fr Rivas told El Mundo, and nodded his assent. He said he felt better now, and said the prayer of Pope Francis made him feel much good.
Significantly, El Mundo’s correspondent noted that he came to the interview walking on his own two feet, whereas he was on a wheelchair when he met the Pope.
Angel told El Mundo, “I still have the demons inside me, they have not gone away!” He recalled the very first time the demons entered into him, it was in 1999 when “I was returning home by bus from Mexico D. F. to my birthplace in Michoacán state”. He felt that “an energy had entered the bus. I did not see it with my eyes, but I perceived it. I noted that it came close to me, and then stopped in front of me. Then, suddenly, I noted that something like a stake pierced my chest and, little by little, I had the sensation that it was opening my ribs.”
It felt like a heart attack, he thought he would die. From that moment on, he said, his health started deteriorating: he vomited whatever he ate; he felt t pains in his whole body, as if he was full of needles; he began to have difficulty in walking, and breathed “I could not sleep, and when I managed to sleep I had terrible nightmares connected with the evil one”, he added. He began to fall into trances in which he blasphemed, and spoke in unknown languages.
Medical doctors examined him and carried out tests but “could not get to the cause of my problems”, Angel said. Priests gave him Extreme Unction four times, but this only ‘relieved’ but did not remove his problem.
Baptized a Catholic, Angel attended church regularly on Sundays but said he does pray enough. When he became afflicted with demonic possession, a first cousin who is a priest gave him a prayer card with a picture of the Lord of Mercy, and he began praying to this Lord and that helped.
In 2004, at a conference in Morelia, the capital of Michoacán state, Angel met a man who had lived for some time with Padre Pio, and told his story to him. The man placed a relic of Padre Pio on his chest and, Angel said, “at that moment I saw a special light which surrounded me, and I felt great peace. At the same time, however, I felt that something filled me from inside, then pulled me to the ground, and began to manifest itself. I could do nothing. This presence was stronger than me, it dominated me.”
Five years later, Angel learned that he was possessed by the devil, and a priest carried out the first exorcism on him. Knowing he was possessed, he said, “I felt much fear. I also felt very dirty, at the thought that there was an evildoer within me”. His family reacted with incredulity, while some of his siblings were skeptical and thought he was psychologically unbalanced, he said.
From that moment on he began a desperate search to find an exorcist that could liberate him of the demons. He first went to one in Mexico City, who carried out four or five exorcisms on him. After trying another exorcist in Mexico some three years ago, Angel sought the help of the most famous Spanish exorcist, Fr Jose Antonio Fortea, who also carried out exorcisms on him, as did five others, but none of them could cast out his demons.
His possession turned into “a nightmare”, he said, so much so that he had to close the publicity firm he owned and sell some real estate to support his family. “I just want to live a normal life, above all for my wife and my sons who are 6 and 11 years old. Fortunately, my children have never seen me in a trance, though they know I am ill”, he said.
The past eight months have been a period of terror, he said; he could not go out of the house because he felt so ill. Then one night he had a dream about Pope Francis, and when he woke up from the dream he turned on the TV and saw the Pope celebrating mass exactly as he had seen in his dream “and then the idea came into my head that I should go to Rome”. At that time he was reading Fr Amorth’s book on “The last exorcist” in which he tells how both Benedict XVI and John Paul II carried out exorcisms and said liberating prayers for the possessed. Angel asked Fr Rivas, whom he has known for two years, to accompany him.
Fr Rivas told El Mundo that they failed on three attempts to meet the Pope, but on May 19, “Divine Providence helped us and we were finally able to meet him, and he said a prayer”.
A day after Angel was blessed by the Pope, Fr Amorth, 88, who has carried out 160,000 exorcisms told El Mundo, “I have no doubt, he is possessed”. The exorcist considers Angel’s possession to be a very special kind: it’s a possession with a message. Not only is he possessed, but the devil who lives in him finds himself obliged by God to transmit a message.
Fr Amorth said, “Angel is a good man, he has been chosen by the Lord to give a message to the Mexican clergy and to tell the bishops that they have to do an act of reparation for the law on abortion that was approved in Mexico City in 2007, which was an insult to the Virgin. Until they do not do this, Angel will not be liberated.”