Some eternally useful lessons about exorcizing trauma and self-actualization lie just below
the surface of The Pope's Exorcist.
In The Pope's Exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, played by Russell Crowe, heads to Spain to
help a young boy named Henry, who is possessed after moving with his mother and sister into
an abandoned abbey.
While performing an exorcism on Henry, Father Amorth becomes possessed himself.
After the Vasquez family is safely out of the house and demon-free, he goes into the
catacombs beneath the abbey.
After a battle with the help of his colleague Father Esquibel, he forces the demon back
into Hell.
But Father Amorth isn't the same after this whole ordeal.
Viewers learn that he is remorseful for his role in a young girl's death by suicide, but
it isn't until the demon makes him relive that event that he confesses to God again.
It's a reminder that even if we initially confess our mistakes, it sometimes takes another
catalyst for the message to sink in.
Otherwise, Father Amorth's life may have continued in a different direction.
He might have continued to overlook certain cases where he was needed by acting pridefully.
Instead, he ends up helping the church research other locations that may have the same type
of demonic presence.
"And his faith gave him a certain level of courage to do the job."
Before Father Amorth's arrival, Father Esquibel shows up as Henry's condition rapidly declines.
However, he's the "wrong priest," according to the demon.
Over the course of the movie, we learn that Father Esquibel had indiscretions and chose
the priesthood over the woman he loved.
He is a timid individual who grows into his role as a man of faith under Father Amorth's tutelage.
While Father Esquibel struggles to resist the taunts and temptations of the demon, he
ultimately overcomes his fears and helps Father Amorth survive his possession.
The lesson here is that we are only as great at something as we allow ourselves to be.
Father Esquibel could've allowed his weaknesses to prevent him from completing the exorcism.
Instead, he finds strength in what he doesn't know and allows that to fuel him on his chosen path.
He also demonstrates that sometimes we are the only ones holding ourselves back.
Father Amorth believed in Father Esquibel even when he had doubts about himself.
While it took a traumatic experience for him to reach his full potential, it is an important
realization for him to have, especially considering what he chose to give up when he joined the church.
The Vasquez family, consisting of mom Julia, teenage daughter Amy, and tween son Henry,
move to Spain after the death of Julia's husband.
The abbey had been in his family, and they inherited it upon his death.
They're in a tight financial bind, so they move into the abbey with the plan to fix it
up and sell it.
After Henry's possession and exorcism, audiences are told that they move back to the United
States and that Henry makes a complete recovery.
Viewers don't actually see the Vazquezes in that better place, as The Pope's Exorcist
doesn't feel the need to devote screentime to their happy ending.
Despite being the initial victims of the demon and being indirectly responsible for his return
to the surface world, they aren't the focus of the story.
Some things don't necessarily need to be spelled out to audiences, and this is one of those cases.
This can be a surprising rarity in cinema, as producers can be worried that viewers won't
be able to keep up with the narrative.
But this ending offers a welcome change from that habit.
"I'm here to help, Julia."
When the Vasquezes move into the San Sebastian Abbey, it is run down, and they work to restore
it while maintaining the original architectural features.
But considering what happens over the course of the film, it isn't exactly in the best
condition when the priests leave.
The church effectively raids the property, rescuing the documents that the priests find
in the catacombs below.
They also reconsecrate the land in an effort to keep the demon back in Hell.
The state of the property is symbolic of both the film's ending and where the two priests
end up after the exorcisms.
Like the abbey, the priests made it to the other side alive, even though there was some
damage inflicted along the way.
For the priests, this comes in the form of both emotional and physical distress, but
for the abbey it was only physical damage.
But, also like the priests, the abbey still stands tall.
Despite the huge flames of gas and a demon literally trying to take over the church,
it doesn't crumble under that pressure, and neither do Fathers Amorth and Esquibel.
Sometimes we have to experience pain to grow as people.
Similarly, the abbey will grow metaphorically with the church's intervention and the reconsecration.
Even though it won't be used as an abbey again, it has served an important purpose that will
positively impact the church for years to come.
Described as the "King of Hell" by Father Amorth, Asmodeus is the demon present within
the San Sebastian Abbey.
Unlike demons from other exorcism films, Asmodeus is a powerful entity that completely changes
the course of history in the film.
Fathers Amorth and Esquibel seem to successfully send the demon back to Hell in the final act,
and the reconsecration of the land should provide an additional barrier to keep him
from returning anytime soon.
Sealing Asmodeus back into Hell is an excellent representation of something we all do in our
lives: compartmentalization.
When we experience emotions we aren't prepared to deal with, we section them off in our mind
until we're ready to deal with them, just like how Henry became mute after his father's death.
And that's effectively what the priests are doing as well.
The church isn't prepared to deal with a demon this powerful, so he's instead walled off
until they have time to prepare.
However, they do take the time to go through the documents they gather from the abbey.
Sometimes we need to do some work before we can approach intense emotions, especially
those rooted in trauma.
Even if it will take a long time, like the priests' quest to find the 100 other locations
that contain similar portals to Hell, it's usually worth it.
"I call it evil."
There are several factors that lead to Henry's possession.
The construction of the abbey is one of them, as it creates an opening in the physical barrier
keeping the demon at bay.
But Henry's personal pain also leaves him particularly vulnerable.
He was in the car when his father died tragically and violently, and that trauma understandably
had a significant impact on him.
When we meet him at the beginning of the movie, he hasn't spoken for an entire year.
He's still hurting, and moving to an unfamiliar place isn't helping.
While this is a particularly drastic case, it's important to remember that sometimes
while trying to process pain, we actually make ourselves more vulnerable.
We can become so focused on trying to work through something that it can blind us to
other situations that can also hurt us.
In Henry's case, this includes an opening in his soul for a demon.
A Latin phrase that translates to "our sins will seek us out" is repeated throughout the
film, because of its use in the documents that discuss the history of the abbey.
This phrase reminds us that someone will take advantage of our weaknesses if we let them,
just as the demon takes advantage of Father Amorth's trauma and Henry's pain.
While Henry's trauma is relatively fresh, Father Amorth's has been around for much longer.
We see flashbacks to his time at war, as he watches his friends killed by German soldiers,
and we also see the young woman Rosaria jump to her death in front of him.
Both incidents took place many years earlier, but both still nonetheless weigh on him heavily.
Trauma doesn't automatically go away after a certain amount of time.
Even many years later we can still feel intense emotions.
Seeing that depicted on screen is an important reminder of that for all audiences, but for
men in particular, whose mental health has not always been prioritized in popular culture.
Father Amorth almost looks ashamed that these events still weigh on him, and he considers
it a weakness that they can still be used against him by the demons.
But he shouldn't be.
There isn't a linear path to healing, and that is shown in how Henry copes with his
father's passing and how Father Amorth remembers his time at war.
"You've been played, and you took the bait."
As the priests look into the history of the San Sebastian Abbey, they discover that the
last time Asmodeus walked in the human world, it was in the body of an important priest.
This allowed the demon to infiltrate the church, ultimately leading to the Spanish Inquisition.
What's worse is that the church knew that this happened, and handled it by walling the
possessed priest away under the abbey and redacting all of the information from their records.
Anyone can cover something up if they are ashamed of it.
The church covered up what happened at the abbey because they were ashamed of the role
they had in one of the darkest chapters in religious history.
They knew that what happened was wrong, but they still chose to prevent the public from
learning about it, as it would discredit the church if people knew all the details.
But The Pope's Exorcist makes sure to let us know that, even when you try to keep something
a secret, it will always come to light eventually.
In the case of the church, it takes hundreds of years, but the truth still eventually comes out.
Their secrets are revealed because the demon is uncaged, which leads to more possessions.
If the church had been forthcoming about the history of the abbey, the possessions of Henry
and Father Amorth could've possibly been prevented.
Ultimately, The Pope's Exorcist makes it clear that our metaphorical demons will come back
to haunt us.
For Father Amorth, this involves guilt over traumatic memories being used against him
by an actual demon.
For the church, it involves that demon coming out of the abbey in which they confined it.
And for Father Esquibel, it's a matter of his indiscretions in previous relationships.
But the movie also reminds us that we don't have to let those demons take over our life.
Both priests fight against what Asmodeus presents to them and don't allow themselves to become
distracted from the task at hand.
Even though Father Amorth does become possessed, he ultimately refuses to be haunted by the
past any further.
While it may not seem like it at first, The Pope's Exorcist can be interpreted as a powerful
message about how to handle past trauma, the guilt over our past actions that can threaten
to consume us, and how we can conquer those demons as we work through our pain over time.
That is the journey Father Amorth goes through over the course of the film as he performs
the exorcisms.
"My faith does not require defense."
The Pope's Exorcist is based on two books by the real Father Gabriele Amorth.
In his writings, he describes his experience as an exorcist with the Roman Catholic Church.
So there's certainly potential to continue Father Amorth's story on screen.
The Pope's Exorcist takes place in 1987, just a single year into Amorth's tenure.
There are plenty of other episodes that can be told about his life and his work, as he
conducted thousands of exorcisms over the course of his time with the church.
The two books that the film is based on, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist:
More Stories, surely include other cases and information that could be adapted into sequels.
Any potential follow-up could also show Father Amorth's journey as one of the founders of
the International Association of Exorcists in 1990.
Exorcisms are still contested in the public eye, and following the priest's journey of
creating an organization for exorcists could provide a new angle in a genre that can sometimes
struggle to be original.