The Exorcist Files - Q&A With Father Martins, Testimonies and Absurd and Overly Specific Criticisms

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Father Martins shares testimonies from the St. Jude Tour, answers some audience questions from last year, and Ryan reads a few of the absurd and overly specific criticisms.Thanks to our sponsors!Save money and cancel unwanted subscriptions with Rocketmoney.com/exfiles . It's an exorcism of your finances!Let's get you speaking in a new language. Get up to 60% off with Babbel.com/exfilesWant amazing news stories? Stories that matter for Christian Parents? Check out ReadLion.comWant more bonus episodes? Sign up for THE VAULT here.Men- Jump on Exodus90, it starts January 20th. Click here- Exodus90.com/exfilesTestimony from St. Jude Tour- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hfVBHsnRpMSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Amen. Father Martin's here. I want to do a quick plug for one of the most powerful tools I've seen for breaking free and growing closer to Christ. Exodus 90. The Exodus 90 challenge begins this year on January 20th. But this isn't just a 90-day program. Exodus 90 is a spirituality for modern men that is built on three ancient pillars. Prayer, self-sacrifice, and fraternity. We all long for something more. We long to be the man God created us to be, sons of a loving father. It's time to turn away from our idols. It's time to break free from the pharaohs that hold us in bondage. If you're ready to make a fresh start and embark on a journey to uncommon freedom in Jesus Christ, then download the Exodus 90 app today. This is your chance to break free, refocus, and rediscover who God is calling you to be in the new year. It starts January 20th. So go to Exodus 90.com slash X-Files to learn more about Exodus 90.

That's Exodus 90.com slash X-Files to join tens of thousands of men from all over the world for Exodus 90. Again, it begins Monday, January 20th. God bless you. Welcome back to The Exorcist Files. We are pleased to bring you a very special Q&A. Before we start today's episode, though, we do want to give a shout out to one of our sponsors, The Lion. Go check it out.

It is an awesome news aggregation site covering the latest developments in media and culture and specifically Christian education. Head to readlion.com. That's read like read your Bible. and Lion, like Lion of Judah, read the Lion.com. He kept up to date on all the latest developments, especially in education. If you're a Christian parent, this is a site you're going to want to check out. We're really proud to be partnered with them, so do go check it out for yourself.

Today we have Father Martins here to answer some of the fan questions that have been rolling in. Also, fans, you're going to want to stay tuned here, all right, because at some point during this Q&A. I am finally going to do what we've been asked for a very long time. Since the beginning of this show last year, I will read several of the absurd and overly specific criticism emails that we do get, and we can get father's quick reaction to them. We get hundreds of emails from people who have given their lives to Christ, have achieved spiritual freedom, or just love the show. But for every hundred we get, we do get one. That's a very interesting email. So stay tuned. You never know when I might bring those up.

let's get started. Father, thanks for being here. As Father's tour is beginning to wrap up, I wanted to get a sense of any cool testimonies and stories. As our regular listeners know, Father has been touring for many, many months, almost a year, and has collected quite a few interesting stories. Father, are there any stories that you haven't shared yet or cool testimonies from the St. Jude tour that you could open us up with? Sure, yeah, they come in all the time. I've pulled a couple of emails and I'll just share what has come in. You know, to put things in perspective, when people experience a healing and relics heal, they communicate the presence of God. And that shouldn't come as a surprise because scripture tells us that the saints are incarnate

in Christ. In other words, that they are members, members being body parts, limbs. That's the that St. Paul uses over and over again in this analogy that he presents. And it's the analogy that he uses the most often. So it should be no surprise then that God uses them to perform the work of Christ. So here is one, dear Father Martins, my 92-year-old mother, Henrietta, had a hernia, which caused her great pain. On November 9, 2004 in St. Louis, Missouri, she attended the exposition of St. Jude at Assumption Catholic. Church. She was healed that day, her hernia completely disappearing. The pain was totally gone and has never returned. Three days later, an MRI showed everything was perfectly normal, and there was

absolutely no sign of the hernia. Thank you, St. Jude. Another testimony coming from somebody named Natalie. Father Martins brought St. Jude to our church recently, St. Jude Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I am recovering from a badly broken ankle and, while that is on the slow path of healing, that same foot experienced a stress fracture. While at the church during the relic tour and veneration and mass, I humbly asked for St. Jude's intercession for a complete and total healing of the entire situation. Stress fracture and broken ankle. I told God that I would accept whatever happened and knew that if no healing occurred, that would be okay because it just wasn't in his will at the time. That very night at home, the pain I had been experiencing from the stress fracture was completely gone.

Yes, there was still stiffness and immobility in my ankle from the break, but the stress fracture, which was quite different from the ankle break, was a non-issue. I didn't dare believe it, and I told myself the pain would probably return the next more, morning, however, there was no pain the next morning, and no pain of a stress fracture ever since. It was completely and immediately healed. Thank you, my new friend St. Jude for your help and aid. Another email. I wanted to email and say, it's been nine days since I went with my kids to the St. Jude Relics at St. Elizabeth Anne Seton in Fort Collins, Colorado. I've had chronic tailbone pain from an injury for 26 years.

My tailbone was severely deformed from an injury. I went to the relics because I was excited to see them and only thought to ask for healing as we walked in. I whispered to my kids, it wouldn't hurt if you guys asked St. Jude to heal my fractured tailbone. I was due to schedule a surgical procedure over the next week as I had met with the surgeon the day before.

Each day that has passed, I have thanked St. Jude for his prayers, and Christ's healing through St. Jude. I am cautiously optimistic, but wanted to share the small difference this is made in my life, even if just for a week. I've been able to sit without pain. I believe it is a miracle.

Gina. Father Martins, my wife and I attended the Mass and veneration of St. Jude's relic this Saturday, September 21st, at St. Jude Catholic Church in Redmond, Washington. At the time I was in great pain, one week before I'd been diagnosed with a blood clot in my right leg. Several doctors informed me that it would take three months or more for my body to break down the clot. Less than 48 hours after our veneration of this sacred relic and asking

St. Jude for healing, I was re-examined for the clot and it was gone. Even the doctor looked surprised and said, I don't know what happened. I have never experienced a miracle from God before, but because of St. Jude's intercession, I am out of danger. Thank you, St. Jude. Good evening, Father Martin's and tour team. I've been wanting to reach out for a while now, but wasn't sure what exactly I should say. Let me start with thank you. This chore has changed my family's life completely. Due to St. Jude's intercession, I have a healed back from an injury I got in the army years ago, and we are all converting to Catholicism. The blessings for my family have been endless, and I cannot be more grateful. My husband and I have recently made a testimony

video explaining our story that I would like to share with you. I only want to spread awareness of St. Jude's ability to be a great intercessor and the truths of the Catholic faith. Thank you so much again. I will be forever grateful. Love, Catherine Howden, and she provides a link to a YouTube video on the testimony, which we will put in the show notes of this episode. Well, I guess that's to be expected when Father, is the estimate over a million people may come and see St. Jude's relic? Very, very close to two million. Two million. Okay. Wow. All right. Well, way to go, St. Jude. All right. Well, there you go, folks. We want to start off on an encouraging note. So hopefully that brings you some joy and inspiration to whatever you might be going through.

Father, we got a question in the show. The Demosiac's voices are obviously dramatized and changed with some sound effects. Curious, how close is that to the actual thing? What we're hearing on the show, how similar is that to what Father Martins is experienced in the room? Well, that's a good question. And to understand it, you need to realize that when a demon speaks through a person, in the vast majority of the times that one does so, the voice, the demon is very different than the person's actual voice. It's usually deep, guttural, rough, and loud. And this, of course, is intentional on the part of the demon.

He wants to incite fear, distress, tension. He wants to project himself as big and strong. And his use of the voice in such a manner fits very well with the kind of speech that he uses. He uses threatening language. He mocks. And most demons use expletives as punctuation. But there's more than just the mere sound of the voice. There's the atmospheric change that typically occurs in a room, right?

Creepiness takes over. There's a change in the spiritual barometric pressure, if you will. Someone sitting on the other side of the room, for example, may get knocked down or some object of theirs may get knocked down. A chair may tip over or something like that. A pain may manifest in your shoulder when it was just fine. a minute ago. You may get nauseous. There may be a foul odor that appears in the room, that kind of thing. So in a reenactment, we need to find a way to give the listener a flavor of what it's like to be in the room and listening to the demon. So we use a sound engineer

and our brilliant sound engineer, Dan, to try to achieve that. And all of this is, again, And yeah, to communicate that flavor of what it's like to be in the room. So is it exactly in the case file of, you know, Peter getting exercised and delivered from a demon named Smeepel? Did we record the voice so that we can mirror it exactly? Absolutely not. Now, we wouldn't record anything at all. But we communicate in an auditory way a voice that provides the flavor of what it's like. to be in the room. That's what we're after.

But to be sure, Father, the voices can change beyond what the human vocal chord normally puts out. Oh, sure. Yeah. Obviously, there's limited tricks, I shouldn't say tricks, but there's limited filters and options. You know, people have commented that sometimes the demonic voices sound very similar because you're lowering the voices. That's an audio thing. And to speak off of that, they are very similar sounding to a greater extent. They're not after originality. couldn't give a rat's rump about that. They just want to convey a particular flavor. They're

using the voice to further the image that they're trying to achieve. That's what they're after. So we don't spend a heck of a lot of time trying to be creative because they're not creative about that. All right, father, this is an interesting question. In some books on exorcism, it is said that battles with the demonic leave the priest extremely drained and depleted and that there is a, quote, toll beyond that of just being a priest and trying to live a righteous life. So the normal sort of just opposition you face just being a priest. Do you agree with this, Father? If so, how does it work if you're there with the authority of the church, but the enemy still has the ability to fight and inflict harm on you?

In Malachi Martin's book, he talks a priest also having a risk of getting possessed doing exorcism if they aren't careful. Is that an actual risk? So maybe we break this into two parts. First part about the toll. Father, do you agree that there is a... special toll that is taken when one engages in exorcism, even if a priest goes in with the authority of the church is prayed up and doing everything right? A very good question. I think any and every exorcist will agree that his service, his work in the exorcism has a sacrificial dimension.

There's a kind of self-offering of himself in that work. And that self-offering is at a spiritual level in addition to the physical level where he's in that room interacting and exerting whatever force and whatever actions he's doing in order to bring about that liberation. But there's something internal. There's something that is lost, if you will, in that action. And this is not unlike Sunday Mass for a priest. Right. So look, one of the things that I discovered very quickly after my organization is a

priest is that there's something different from Sunday Mass than any than Mass in any other day of the week. There's a sacrificial element of it. Whether you do one mass, whether you do five masses on a Sunday, there's a certain part of you that is drained. It's lost in the sacrifice, if you will. that is not there on a Monday morning mass or a Thursday morning mass or evening mass for that matter or afternoon mass. There's something that that's lost. In other words, you're brought in to the sacrificial dimension. And for the rest of that day, you're just, you're zonged.

And this is why on Sundays you typically, you don't find priests doing a heck of a lot of socializing once their responsibilities are done. Most priests want to be alone. Or if they get together, they'll get together with maybe another priest. You may have a bite to eat. You may watch a movie. There's nothing strenuous that he wants to engage in because there's just, you're zonked in a way that's really inexplicable

at a human level, at a physical level, based on just the sheer work that you did. Yeah, okay, you may have done several masses, and there's a certain amount of work to that. But relatively speaking, you know, in terms of exerting the physicality of those tasks, it's not a heck of a lot. You know, and especially you encounter this during Holy Week. You know, Easter Monday is the toughest day of the year for the priest. He doesn't want to do anything.

And I remember posting a meme on Facebook one year of a dog just kind of flopped down on a set of stairs. and kind of not wanting to move. And I put a caption, you know, how every priest feels on Easter Monday. And a bunch of people chimed in and just said, you know, gosh, what's so difficult about what a priest does during Holy Week? How about what a mom does? Washing loads of laundry, driving four different kids to four different places, preparing dinner, doing this, doing that. And on the one hand, I can see that that person has a point. Well, all the priest did was massed on Palm Sunday, on Monday of Holy Week Mass, Tuesday, Wednesday, the last mass before the Tritome, Holy Thursday, Good Friday service, the Easter vigil, a few masses on Sunday.

Okay, well, it's so difficult about all of that. When you look at it just at a human level, there's work there, but there's nothing that's so deeply draining. You have to be a priest to experience the kind of lack. of yourself that is present after all of that is done. There's a sacrificial dimension of it. Every Sunday we experience that. So I want to put that out there so that you can understand that in exorcism, there's an element of this as well, that there's a part of you that is spent.

And it comes back, just like you bounce back after Holy Week and you bounce back after, you know, Sunday. but the Lord allows us to feel, he desires us to feel something of the sacrificial dimension of it. I think that's the best way I can describe it. And after an exorcism, the only thing I want to do, I mean, I want to go out, I want to have a bite to eat because you've typically been fasting. You want to eat something to get your energy back. You want to have a drink. But I only want to be with the people that were in the session with me. I don't want to be with anybody else.

I sure as heck don't want to answer questions about this topic or that topic that would require me more interest, that would require out of me brain power to kind of recall like, okay, wait a minute, I got to get out of the space that I'm in right in. I just want to enjoy good people's company and have a good time and not think very much. We will discuss what happened in the room. We'll revisit a scenario. We'll revisit something a demon may have said. We'll try to put together some clues. But you're kind of already in that space. You don't want to go into a new space.

You just simply don't have the energy for that. Amen. Father Martin's here. I want to do a quick plug for one of the most powerful tools I've seen for breaking free and growing closer to Christ. Exodus 90. The Exodus 90 challenge begins this year on January 20th, but this isn't just a 90-day program. Exodus 90 is a spirituality for modern men that is built on three ancient pillars, prayer, self-sacrifice, and fraternity. We all long for something more.

We long to be the men God created us to be, sons of a loving father. It's time to turn away from our idols. It's time to break free from the pharaohs that hold us in bondage. If you're ready to make a fresh start and embark on a journey to uncommon freedom in Jesus Christ, then download the Exodus 90 app today. This is your chance to break free, refocus, and rediscover who God is calling you to be in the new year. It starts January 20th. So go to Exodus 90.com slash X-Files to learn.

Learn more about Exodus 90. That's Exodus 90.com slash EX files to join tens of thousands of men from all over the world for Exodus 90. Again, it begins Monday, January 20th.

God bless you. The second part, Father, is that something you've heard of that priests who do exorcism are obviously at, you know, unique risk? It's something not that we don't take lightly. But Father, have you heard, is that an actual risk of priests do exorcism having collateral

damage of getting possessed or potentially having major blowback? Obviously, the movie The Exorcist portrays a character where the priest invites the demon into them, which we've talked about that would never happen. But is there any occupational hazard of demonization risk to the priest engaging in it if they're not doing it correctly or that you've heard of in your time and ministry. Well, certainly, look, exorcism is dangerous in the sense that you're confronting the adversary of man. You're confronting the archetypal enemy of the universe. And that you have to go into that with the understanding that you can't be flippant about it. In other words, first and foremost, your moral state has to be perfect in the sense of you cannot be in the state of mortal sin because by

definition then if you are in mortal sin you belong to him so you're his slave and how do you think a master is going to react if his slave is trying to attack him well he's going to attack you and he's going to cut you good and the fact that you're in the state of mortal sin enables him to possess you you also can't make the mistake of trying to be god you are god's agent and you have to resolve to accept the conditions that God is placing upon that situation. The exorcism may not go as fast as you desire it to go. That may provoke an anger within you, a frustration. But you have to be careful at expressing that,

and you have to be careful of the level that you get. And if it gets high, you may have to end the session. That, look, today, for whatever reason, I'm just not at my best, and I think it's best if I just end this session. Why? Because you may do something stupid like provoke the demon or challenge him. For example, and it's happened before. And I just, this would be the most dangerous, stupid thing to do is to command the demon to leave the victim and come into you. Because you get, you are frustrated at how he has bullied this person to such an extent that he's making his or her life.

miserable and you want to face this bully, you want to head off this bully on his terms, and that faith and the person himself or herself may not have the strength that you think you do. And so you issue that provocation, well, that is the stupidest thing you could do because what that is doing is forming a relationship, is actually provoking an ungodly relationship with the demon, right? He can come and possess you. It's funny that you preface this with Malachi Martin. And, you know, Malachi Martin himself performed exorcisms.

And it is believed by many, and I'm inclined to be one of those, that he died in the state of possession. Or that at least that he himself became possessed. Why? Because he performed an exorcism apart from an Episcopal mandate. And, you know, Malachi Martin, I have. find him an immensely peculiar individual. There's a lot of dodgy things about him, a complicated guy, absolutely brilliant human being, and he loved the mystique that surrounded him and his ideas. He was so bright, so much brighter than the average person that he could weave a kind

of narrative and kind of storytelling that could keep people guessing. He liked to be kind of cryptic. He wrote a book called hostage to the devil, which I find was horrifically irresponsible because, quite frankly, in a word, it glorified the devil. I would never write such a thing. I would never communicate the results of a confrontation with the devil in a manner that he did. And what it shows is one of two things happened that he wanted, immorally, to communicate the power of the devil apart from God's control of him, or two, the devil had already gained a foothold within and was using Malachi Martin to glorify himself. Either one of those, you're in the realm of disaster. But there was also this question, like gosh, so many people out there think that he remained a priest in good standing but was given permission by the Pope to live a private life, like apart from his religious community. He had been a Jesuit.

No, the man was laicized. The man was returned to the lay state. I've seen a copy of the decree from the Vatican, which begins calling him, dear Mr. Martin. So, boom, there it is. Now, ontologically, when a man is ordained a priest, he's a priest forever because there's an indelible mark that's put on the soul. Nevertheless, the right to be addressed as a priest, the right to act as a priest, to perform the functions of a priest. Those are bestowed by the church.

And so he had those taken away. And he had those taken away because of sin, you know, because of his own transgressions. And so many people will disagree with me with that. that, but hey, that's fine if you want to disagree, but it doesn't change the facts. So, Father, is there another book that you think people should check out if they're curious about? I mean, I couldn't think of one, but is there another well-known exorcist who's issued a book recently at all? There was a book that came out November 19th of this year called The Exorcist Files. And, you know, I would go out and say that I think I've read that book, and I think it's the best,

book on the topic of exorcism that's out there. I did find the cover to be a little distracting from the topics. Your thoughts on that, Father? Well, a cover of a book is a cover of a book, but the content of the book, that's why we buy a book. And I think that book is up there with the best books of the year. Well, yeah, check it out. The author's name escapes me right now, but it's called The Exorcist Files. I think readers will find a lot of similarities between that and the show's content, but also enough to make it different. So, yeah, if you're interested in that, definitely check out that book. There are not many pictures, if any.

So if that's your game, I would seek a coloring book. A little more lighthearted here. Does the Catholic Church have an official stance on dinosaurs? And also, what does the Catholic Church just stance on evolution? Okay. So with regard to dinosaurs, I mean, the church does not have a theological position. on dinosaurs. It has a scientific one, and that is that they existed because there's physical evidence of that existence. So, I mean, neither you nor I have a religious position on dinosaurs.

The church doesn't either. But with regard to evolution, so that gets much more interesting as a theological, as an intellectual question. And, you know, so look, the first person to propose evolution was Darwin. And Darwinian evolution. the theory that was spelled out by Charles Darwin, almost nobody in the intellectual realm takes that seriously anymore because that theory is so fraught with problems and it breaks down. And simply put, since the time of Darwin, no one in the scientific community,

absolutely no one has been able to prove a link between species, that this species, species A, evolved into species B. There has never been that link established. It's not been proven. It's not been proven. And so Darwinian evolution as a theory, as a scientific theory, is highly, highly problematic. It's fallen apart. Now, I think there's three positions that are available or that. that people take. So one is the traditional Christian position of there was an instantaneous

creation that God created and he created beings or elements of the physical universe at different times. So he create, and that's straight out of scripture, right? On the first day of creation, he said, let there be light, even though it was on the fourth day that he created the sun and the stars, the bodies that provide light. So there's some kind of different light that is created on day one and so forth. But anyway, the point being that there's a staggering of creation. And, you know, so that's theory one, which which is the traditional kind of Christian theory. Theory two would be that there would be, that there is evolution, but it is deistic evolution. that God somehow caused species A to evolve into species B through his power by in instituting within them,

incarnating within them, some grace that transforms them into something else. So it is not purely scientific, but it is elevated by God. So, for example, human beings have the ability to think abstractly, to think that we are not just products of instincts and we move beyond instincts. We are the only being, for example, that can commit suicide. You know, animals just don't do this. They are abhorrent. Death is abhorrent for them. But that's not always the case for humans.

And there's a thinking that is there that would cause one to embrace self-destruction. And that embracing a self-destruction supersedes the inherent instincts, first and foremost, the instinct towards self-preservation that is within someone. So there's something different about humans. But that, according to this theory, it was instantiated by God within a lesser life form. He brought out a higher life form from a lesser one. So this is totally compatible with the Christian faith and with elements of scientific evolution. Although, again, this is not just Darwinian evolution with God in the picture saying, okay, now I'm going to take one species and make another species out of it such that there's a biological link.

No, there is no biological link because Darwinianism has never. been able to provide that. But nevertheless, it is compatible with the Christian faith to say that, okay, God took this and made that out of it with his divine power. The third option is atheistic evolution, let's call that, where, you know, Darwinian evolution comes out of that. But there are other non-Darwinian evolutionary theories that science has put forward. But again, they all encounter. they all break down in the same way. They all exhibit the same problems, and that is there has never been a link provided between species.

And so this is the problem with that scientific view. Now, the first view, creation or creationism, God's bringing something purely out of nothing that that is totally compatible to Christian faith. Christians are free to believe that. No problem. They are also free to believe option number two, that there is evolution. alongside with God. So there is divine evolution, if you will.

The third option, neither makes intellectual sense and neither is it compatible with the truths of the faith. So that is not available to the Christian. And when I say with regard to option number two, that God caused an evolution to come about, you know, like when you take consciousness the unique human characteristic of consciousness, which includes self-reflection, which includes the ability to think abstractly and to ponder concepts like justice.

I mean, a pig, a swine, doesn't sit in a pen munching away at some corn thinking about justice, right? But humans do. So that had to come from something. And the logical principle of this is something doesn't come from nothing. If there ever was nothing, there would never be anything. And so consciousness can't come out of non-consciousness. It's a much superior reality.

So there had to be something there, i.e. God, to make that reality present within these beings. So that would be my answer for that. All righty. Father, in the Ouija board episode, it doesn't say specifically how you were involved, but obviously this was one of your case files. What was your involvement in the case? Were these friends, and for our listeners, this was season one spiritual roulette, the friends who ended up playing with the Ouija board.

Father, could you remind the listeners what your connection to that case was? Yeah, so I was not involved in the reenactments of the case because the reenactments cover the sinful part of the case. the participants. For me to be active in the reenactments, I would have to be a character alongside the Ouija board when those events happened. And the immediate aftermath of the hauntings, if you will, that the demons inflicted on the victims. So at the time of the events, I didn't know any of the participants. I didn't know any of them. But afterwards, in the spiritual cleanup, I interacted with them, certainly, and I'm friends with three of them to date.

So with regard to the actual events that you hear in the podcast, well, the vast majority, I'm setting the stage for the effect of the evil that they suffered, that they endured. And then the need, which the need for the cleanup, which then they came to me and looking for that cleanup. All right, father, this is an interesting question. When you hear of a famous haunted castle or a hotel or perhaps one of the, you know, the quote, the world's most haunted cities you hear about like Savannah, Georgia or St. Augustine, do you assume that if that was, if you were at a grant, that there's something going on that was preternatural, would you assume a ghost or would you assume demonic activity? Obviously, there could be many different answers here, but when you hear stories about like a haunted

castle, what do you think of immediately? You know, I try not to make any assumptions. If people come to me looking for help in a situation, I hear the account. And then I engage in trying to affect that cleanup, trying to bring about a better state of affairs for people. But I don't, it's not within me to start making a lot of assumptions about a reality right away. It's just not, it's not my style to do that. So that would be my answer for that.

And then maybe just as a general warning to, you know, Father, obviously a lot of these, quote, haunted attractions, you know, invite a lot of tourism. Is that something you would tell people to just avoid if something has a reputation of being haunted that even if it was a ghost per se, that's not something you'd want to necessarily expose yourself to? Oh, absolutely. You know, look, you, if you're going at these things to be entertained or as an expression of your curiosity, to be immersed within it, to kind of get a taste of a haunting, if you will, you're forming a relationship with that entity. So if you're forming a relationship with it, it, by definition, is forming a relationship with you.

All right. Could you give us a little background? We had some questions about what was Father Gabriel Amorth like? Did you ever get a chance to meet him? Just maybe give us a quick little primer. We'll obviously do an episode on him as we promised in the future. But tell us a little bit about who was Gabriel Amorth and did you have any experience with him? Yeah, so I never did, unfortunately, meet Father Gabriel Amorth. By the time, I started in this work. He was already an old man. And so I never got to meet him. I did several times I stayed at the passionist house at the Scala Santa in Rome, which was the house, which was the monastery where his teacher lived, Father Candito Amantini, whose cause for sainthood is underway in the church.

So I stayed there and he was already dead by the time I got there. But he was certainly that's where he operated out of and he had a renown. He was quite renowned himself. But the very first time I went to Rome, which was in 1997. So I, you know, I was quite young. I was 22 years old, I believe, at the time. I do remember seeing an exorcist. He was a passionate priest and his name escapes me now.

wasn't Father Amantini, but it was a really old priest in a wheelchair. And he had a bowl of holy water on his lap in the wheelchair. And people lined up. And there was an immense line of people. And he would, I could see him chatting with people and then sprinkling holy water on top of them. And that was his way. That was the way in which he did deliverance. And he had an immense following.

Like I say, people really lined up. So lots happens in Rome. Lots has happened. He was a passionist priest, same as Father Candido. And they have certainly a history in that. I don't know any of them that are involved in exorcism and deliverance now in Rome. But certainly, the concept is not, they are not strangers to the concept. But I never did meet Father Amorth.

Why is he so well known, Father? I mean, I know that is it just by virtue? him being the exorcist for sort of the mothership at Rome? Or why do we talk about him so much? Because Father Amworth, the man himself was different. He was a very serious and bright thinker. We're very quick on his feet. He was a theologian. But he was a great communicator and wasn't shy of the camera. And he wanted, he was an evangelist at heart. So he wanted people to convert to Christ and he was asked by the vicar general for the Diocese of Rome to be an exorcist, to be the exorcist of Rome, to succeed Father Amantini,

and he agreed to it. And so he used that as a way, as a platform with which to evangelize. The man himself opened up an office to the public that to that point in time had been secret. And he was comfortable in doing that. He didn't mind at all having a camera in his face and a microphone in front of him. And he did that all very well. The other thing about him is he had a delightful sense of humor. He liked to laugh and make others laugh.

So he was a serious man, but he was not so serious that he couldn't laugh and see the ridiculous in things and even and take an enjoyment out of it. He brought a very human dimension to that office. And for that reason, he revolutionized that office for the Universal Church. Our Father, we have gotten lots of questions about UFOs. And obviously, you've been on the show, Blurry Creatures and have shared in the past that you think many of the accounts that people are discussing involving UFOs and those apparitions are demonic in origin. But taking a step back, we've talked about a few. few times on the show that the idea of intelligent life is not ruled out necessarily. The Christian faith doesn't state that that's not possible. But if for some reason there was discovered, there was

intelligent life, one, would that affect you and your faith at all? And two, what would be the appropriate response as Christians or questions to ask ourselves if such a thing was discovered? Again, I think the question of UFOs from a rational perspective, from a rational point of view, UFOs, that doesn't necessarily equate to aliens. But we're talking about, I think, extraterrestrial life. You know, does the church have a position on it out there? What would the church do? So translating this question into plain English, it is the equivalent of saying,

what would the church do if finally mermaids or fairies were discovered? So this is on par with that. because of the sheer vastness of the universe and the questions that that have to be surmounted for intelligent life, extraterrestrial life, to reach us and interact with us. And, you know, in the accounts where this has happened, you have kind of these silly things occurring of people being abducted and the odd spaceship crashing, them kind of even at times appearing a little bit stupid. in some of the accounts,

you know, such beings, if they have made it here, they have found a way to travel faster than even the speed of light. So that, there is a kind of intelligence there that is just off the wall. It's off the scale.

So when you look at the accounts that are there, and it's not to say that they're all, that all aliens are presented as stupid in the accounts, but, but what, you know, if they've come out here, to interact. Why don't they interact with the human race? Why is it just with one odd person here, one odd person there, maybe a family there, a group of cows here, making crop circles there? I just think the whole thing is silly. And it's reminiscent of the sightings of fairies and

mermaids from back in the day when this occurred. So the question is purely theoretical. But being on the realm of theory and providing a purely theoretical answer, if it were discovered, if aliens extraterrestrial life were discovered, then we would need to evangelize them. If they possess intelligence like humans, it means that they have an immortal soul. That means Christ died for them. And they would be subject to evangelization. That's what we would do. I guess that would be the simplest answer that I could provide. Do you think, Father, would it be possible that God, do you see any incompatibility with the idea that if Jesus is the Salvitic plan for mankind, if there was another intelligent race that God could have a separate salvation plan for them? Would that be possible?

Well, Revelation is very clear that there is one Savior. So if they're going to be saved, they're going to be saved by Christ. Gotcha. Okay. So is that one Savior for mankind, or I guess that's what the question would be, or is it one Savior for everything? One savior for the universe because Christ as Savior is not just for mankind. He is making all things new. All things new. So there's a Jesus Christ is the universal savior, period. Got it. Oh, this is a fun one.

Many people love guests from the different backgrounds, et cetera. Even though, Father, you have theological disagreements with some of the guests, including Orthodox and Protestant speakers that you brought on, why is it still valuable to have them on the show to learn from, et cetera? And I guess translating it's like, for a show that is predominantly centered on Catholic theology and is the case files of a Catholic priest, Father, why are you open to having on colleagues like Father Nectarios or hearing from Dr. Josh Brown, who's a Protestant, a neuroscientist, and did some deliverance ministry?

What can we learn from other backgrounds, even considering the theological differences? Gosh, because I have profound respect for them. They're professionals. They have their own experience. They have their own contribution that they have made to help people. They are Christians, so they have an experience of Christ. And I want to hear about that. They are baptized members of Christ, meaning that they are members of his body.

And so I need to learn from them. And, you know, Christ never condemned anyone who wasn't against him. And these people certainly are not against him. And, you know, we can learn. We need to learn. And even more than that, aside from the fact of learning, these are just amazing people. These are people that tell a fantastic story. And, you know, I will say this, the Orthodox are special in and of themselves because they are our brothers in the fullest sense of the word, that they are members of Christ's church to the full in the sense that they live the sacramal.

to life in a parallel way to the Catholic Church. So there are disagreements, but these are disagreements that are relatively minor in the scheme of things. So I don't think that there's ever been a teaching, I mean, at least not one that I'm conscious of, that I have given that would contradict a theology of the Orthodox Church. I have profound respect for the Orthodox. and I'm in contact with them regularly. I delight in their experience of God and the way they formulate that experience,

not just in their liturgy, but in their theology. St. John of Cronstadt, I mean, anything that he has written is just an absolute marvel. And it is so enriching. So there's so much that these Christians have to offer. My job is to proclaim God's truth. and in so doing that, I am more successful. I aid in the success of doing that by bringing people together. Anybody who proclaims Jesus Christ risen in the flesh, Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world,

I mean, this is absolutely a net positive because you're proclaiming the most truest, you're proclaiming the truest truth that could exist. So absolutely there of a baptized, Christian, meaning that they are performing the work of Jesus Christ. Christ is active within these people. He's active within any Christian who is proclaiming God's truth. And actually, bringing back to Father Amorth, I think we talked to this one time, but I read in one of his books, and I don't know if this was attributed to him, but he made a comment to the effect of that the Catholic Church doesn't have a monopoly on the perfect practice of all the gifts, and that

even if we maintain that we're the truth, we can still look at other expressions and if there are things that are being done in better ways or they're practicing godliness in a way or holiness in a way that we could learn from. Absolutely. And look, we need to keep in mind Christ himself and what he modeled. You know, when you had the Roman centurion in Copernum coming to Christ and saying, look, can you please heal the slave that I have at home? He's more than a slave.

He's more like a son to me. And Christ says, okay, I'll come to your house. And he says, well, no, no, no, no, you don't have to come to my house. I know what authority is. I'm under authority myself, but I have those under authority for me. And I give an order. I say, go here. And I know that the guy's going to go.

And I say, come here, do this. And I know that he will do it. I know that if you give this command, it's going to happen. You don't have to come into my house. You don't have to exert yourself in making the trek. to my home. And you know what the scripture says at that point? Jesus was amazed at his faith. Amazed. You know, there are worse things to do in your life, say on a Tuesday afternoon, than to amaze Jesus Christ. Now, imagine how special that would be for you to do something

that would outright amaze the second person of the Trinity. And yet, That's exactly what he does. This is not a Jew. Christ came as the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. Now, he came to establish his own church for sure. But imagine how all of this hit the ears and the eyes of the Jews that were listening to Jesus. The Jews being the chosen people. And there's no question that they were.

God chose the Jews to proclaim his revelation to the world. And he set them apart. And yet here's this guy who is a non-Jew. astounding Jesus Christ with his faith. And Christ holds him up as something profoundly special. I think we need to absorb that and to be humbled by it, that in God's plan, we can all learn from one another. Well, it's that special time we promised, Father,

are you ready to hear a few emails that we've gotten that I've selected just for your listening pleasure? As you know, at the end of each episode, we invite people to get in touch with us or leave us an overly specific criticism. And again, we've gotten so many wonderful, encouraging emails. But occasionally, we do get the odd criticism. And so I thought it'd be fun to share a couple of them.

We've had a people request this. Why don't we start with a grammar correction? Father, can you believe that an email came in correcting Ryan's grammar? I can't believe it. You made a grammatical mistake? Here it is. It says, great series, love the jokes. please be aware that Ryan habitually uses the phrase,

this begs the question. When describing something that does not actually, quote, beg the question, and I'm sure a cursory Google search will reveal, quote, begging the question specifically refers to the use of circular logic. Example, why is this restaurant the best? Because it is the best. That is an example of begging the question. Ryan might consider using the phrase,

this prompts the question or this invites the question, which would be far less risky as potentially scandalous to both, philosophy and English majors out there. Thank you for a great show. That was pretty good. Thank you for that email. All right. They're not all so cordial, though.

Father, this one is aimed at you. All right, you ready for this? I'm ready. Dear Exorcist Files team, specifically Father Martins, I am disappointed that you only drive away evil spirits and demons, when in reality,

the smart approach and accomplishment would be to destroy them all, including Satan, please assist me in locating them or have Father Martins destroy the devil himself. He must destroy him to extinction and not just drive away because if Father Martins is just driving them away, they could land on someone else. But so far, you're doing okay. Keep up the good work. Of course, this would invite the question. Why doesn't God himself destroy them? And the simple answer is God is not a destroyer, right? He's a creator. And we destroy ourselves.

The devil destroys himself by disobeying God, by separating himself from God. And so it takes a great humility to interact with reality, with the demonic reality, on God's terms. Look, God, there are many things that I would like to do in life that I can't do. I just have to accept the preordained limits of God, right? I would love to give myself magical powers. And I would do so if I could. I would like to end all hunger in the world. I would like to reform every convict.

I would like to stop all wars. I would like all leaders, civil, judicial, religious, educational to convert to the Christian faith. and start us building the kingdom of God on the earth. And if I could do that with the snap on my fingers, I would. But what I'm saying is I want to be God. And the reality is that I'm not God. And it's foolish to go beyond that, to wish that you were. Because, friend, it just ain't going to happen.

So the mark of health, sanity, and good living, is to accept the world as God has created it and as God has given it and to work in the manner that he has provided to bring about positive change in it. So that's what I do. And for that reason, I don't destroy demons because, A, I can't, but B, it's not God's will. And if we did that, we wouldn't be able to bring more episodes, right, Father? Like, if you enjoy the show, then, you know, that would just take out the whole series, right? Well, I guess it would.

All right. Another email. This one's for Ryan. Dear Actressus Files, teams, love your work, but was profoundly disheartened by the wisecrack remark made toward the end of episode number six, part three, which was the story of Evelyn. That's kisses sweeter than honey. If you, the joke went something like this. If you meet a nice waitress who invites you to move in with her that night, don't do it. Maybe wait a week, at least, because she's.

might be a witch. Cohabitation is a mortal sin and should not be suggested even as a very poor joke. I was very disappointed in Ryan's attempted humor here. I expected more from a Catholic production. I guess, you know, that's what you get when you let the Protestant do the dad jokes, right, Father? That's correct. And I just, you know, one of the things I want to correct there, this is not, the Exorcist Files, is not a Catholic production per se. Well, I am a Catholic. Ryan is not a Catholic. Ryan is a Christian, and you can't project what is not the case into the show. And I think that an attempt at humor has to be recognized as such and has to be accepted as such. So that's my comment on that.

All right, here's another one. Oh, Father, you're going to love this one. Okay. Dear Father Martins and Exorcist Files team, please consider removing profanity from the scenes featuring demons and dramatic reenactments. I personally find them distracting. And while I understand this is part of the experience, a more clever and creative producing team

could find a way to enthrall us without the bad language. Consider usage of the words darn or G's or even shucks. All communicate the correct sentiment and don't lead us into impurity with such vile verbosity. Other than that, great show. No one has ever heard any profanity on the show.

They're all bleeped out. Yes, word. I mean, it's not an explanation. in my world, right? I mean, even Paul uses that word in the scripture. When he says, I consider all things as rubbish, the word he uses is scubelon, which is shit, which is the crudest. In fact, it means human shit, the most disgusting kind of excrement in the ancient world, right? The excrement produced by humans. No one has ever heard an expletive. We bleep them out. You can conjecture what they are.

So why even include them at all? Because this is not Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. I'm trying to communicate the demonic world. And if I'm going to use darn and if you need the word darn and gosh to be used, then maybe this isn't the show for you. And that's fine. You know, this is not everybody's cup of tea and it doesn't have to be. but to say that that the show has to be reformed to suit your palette,

I just, you know, that's your view, that's fine. It's not my view. And really, I don't care. And Father, you're generally not a fan of Reformation in general, right? I'm not a fan of Reformation in general. That is correct. But the whole concept is absurd. I mean, that would be the equivalent of trying to make,

you know, a bank robbery movie by having them, by having the bank robbers threaten the tellers with soft foam Nerf bats rather than guns or knives. It's just the most stupid enterprise. Who would chime in to see a movie like that? Okay. Oh, last one. This one goes a shot at the Ecumenity that we just talked about. Father, this one's a little aggressive, says, Dear Lord, why does this show allow Protestant heretics to speak? What possible benefit could their experience have? This is a Catholic show, and we should only hear from Catholics. Shame on them, especially Ryan, for bringing in his heresies to an otherwise fantastic program.

You know, so this is a person who, you know, I'm sure that this is the least amount of problems that he or she has. So there's something else going on. And I think what we've already provided in the question earlier is enough to speak for this. Well, folks, we get lots of emails, but hope you enjoyed that. And I will be careful the next time I invite the question. So we knew the grammar police are out there and glad they're on it. All right. Well, folks, we're going to do one last question and then call it a day here. Father, does a rosary or crucifix have to be blessed in order to have power,

or maybe they also translating meant efficacy? Well, the power of the faith comes through in precisely that in faith. So in the case of a rosary, the greatest. power comes through praying it devoutly, praying it in faith. The power of a crucivics? Well, what is the crucivics? It is a visual representation of the victory of Christ, of Christ's victory. And so if one has faith in that, then there is tremendous power. And the demons are afraid of you, to the extent that you possess faith. Now, at the same time, both of these objects are material creations. They're made out of elements, material elements in the physical

universe. And we know that because of the sin of Adam, creation and the dominion of creation was handed over to the devil. So when we bless something, we are removing the dominion of the devil from that object. So we're taking any kind of relationship he has to the object. away from him. So is there a benefit in blessing things? Absolutely there is. So we bless crucivixes, rosaries, homes, cars, etc. roads, cities, oceans. We bless them to remove that dominion and that jurisdiction from the devil. Okay. Awesome. All right. Well, folks, that's all the time we have for today. Thanks. Keep those questions coming in. We do have more dramatic reenactments coming, but our schedules have been so busy. And we promised all

all sorts of bonus content from our Kickstarter. And so we are bringing you that programming as it gets wrapped up. A lot of those episodes are in post-production, and we will roll them out as we get them. So thank you so much for listening, folks. Father, any parting words for the fans? Yeah, we'll keep up your prayers for the tour, and God love you all.

You're always in my prayers. Awesome. All right, folks, thanks so much. God bless you. God bless his most precious United States. Stay demon-free. Thank you.