Hitler, Stalin were possessed by the devil: Vatican exorcist

The Vatican's chief exorcist, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth of the Diocese of Rome, has suggested that two of history’s most evil leaders, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, were possessed by the devil when one "thinks of what was committed by people like [them]."

"This is seen in their actions, in their behavior and in the horrors they committed," said Rev. Amorth in a radio interview.

Rev. Amorth also said that the devil can possess entire populations, and he believed the Nazis were possessed.

Along with his comments about Hitler and Stalin, Rev. Amorth talked about recently released Vatican documents that say Pius XII, the Pope during World War II, had attempted a long–distance exorcism of Hitler. It did not work, but Rev. Amorth said he was not surprised because a key requirement of the ritual is that the exorcist must be face to face with the possessed person.

"However, I have no doubt that Hitler was possessed, and so it does not surprise me that Pope Pius XII tried a long–distance exorcism," the Reverend was quoted in news reports.

This is not the first time a Catholic leader has linked Stalin and Hitler to "evil spirits." In 1974, in the midst of a worldwide fascination with exorcism spawned by the movie, a Catholic theologian and exorcism expert called the attention "a bit frenetic, a kind of hysterical reaction," according to an Associated Press story.

To many people, demonic possession conjures the image of swivel–necked Linda Blair in the 1973 movie, "The Exorcist."

But, according to the Catholic Church, true possession is rare, separated from insanity and fraud only by a show of extraordinary abilities, such as superhuman strength and a facility with languages previously unknown to the tormented person.

In "The Exorcist" and in its real–life basis, the victim was a child who was suddenly and violently filled with a malevolent spirit. But religious scholars and clergy say evil character is more commonly the result of a person's own invitation.

"You can open the door and invite (the devil) in; it's not just a question of breaking and entering," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center.

Rev. Reese, however, said he's not inclined to believe that Stalin and Hitler were actually possessed.
"Not all evil is the creation of Satan," he said. "Humanity bears most of the responsibility," he said.

Like Rev. Reese, not many agree with Rev. Amorth's views. At least one clergy member mentioned that he was concerned that Rev. Amorth had excused Stalin and Hitler for the extensive suffering the two directed, by putting the blame on the devil.

"It absolves the Nazis from their crimes," Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles told an NBC News reporter. "It says they're really great people. Up in heaven, some celestial evil angel caused it all."

"We find Satan as a figure in Jewish folklore – a force that tries to thwart what God wants from us. There are stories that Satan appears sometimes in disguise to try and get a person to do what God doesn't want. ...It's our responsibility to do what we have to do to resist these urges or forces," said Rabbi Stephen Fuchs of Congregation Beth Israel in Connecticut.

"The Catholic Church's understanding of the devil's influence on people is that the devil only has power over people to the extent that we cooperate with the power of the devil," said the Rev. Douglas Mosey, president and rector of Holy Apostles Seminary and College. "If someone habitually chooses evil over good, then over a period of time, his or her conscience can become so dulled to hardly be there at all, the voice of conscience so slight that in the practical order, it is disregarded."

This gradual infestation is much different than demonic possession, in which the tormented person has no control over the evil spirit, he said.