Hostage to the Devil (2016) Movie Script

He was just the most fascinating

person I've ever met in my life.

He was Malachi Martin.

There is one Malahi Martin.

He drew you in.

Very, very charming.

He was a warrior for God

and he still is a warior for God.

He was a great mythomaniac.

He was a liar and a scoundrel.

And a cheat.

Good evening.

Tonight we have a vey special geust

and it's my true honour and pleasure

to have made his acquaintance.

He is considered one of

the most knowledgeable experts

on the Vatican in the world.

He is, first of all,

a very eminent theologian.

Expert on the Catholic Church,

former Jesuit,

and proffessor at the the Vatican's

Pontifical Biblical Institute.

He is author of national bestsellers

Vatican: The Final Conclave,

Hostage To The Devil and The Jesuits.

He is also an exorcist.

Exorcism, that is a healing.

And it's a very horrid healing.

But it does heal.

Inside, it is a living hell.

It's a living hell.

The truth is,

whether we like it or not,

the Devil does exist.

He is out there, he is our enemy,

and he hates us.

His aim is th destroy our souls.

This is a reality that does exist.

It's not everybody

but there are real cases.

That's why the rite of exorcism exists.

If the Church didn't believe it,

it wouldn't do it.

It wouldn't even worry about it.

I don't belieive that words teach.

Words don't teach.

Experience teaches.

I think people have to have

their own experiences.

I also know that once someone

encounters that evil presence,

They know

They know what exists and what doesn't.

There is a lot of scurrilous

information out there on the Internet

about Malachi that basically

maligns him,

his character as well as

himself, his person.

And this is part of

setting the record straight.

In addition to being my friend,

he was a good and holy man.

I just want to set the record

straight on that.

We did not talk

an awful lot about his exorcism

except the last one.

I kept asking him not to do it.

And he kept saying,

"I am only going to be an assistant."

Not much chance of that.

An exorcist has to be

a very holy priest.

Protected by graces of the Church.

And I think, again,

in that last exorcism

that he was involved with,

I still believe that Malachi

was the target.

Not that little girl.

She was the bait.

Is it the way we saw it in The Exorcist?

That's a purely fictional account

based on no fact.

I've never seen the head

turning back 180 degrees.

Perhaps we could begin

by you telling us a bit about yourself,

your background,

and some of the activities

that you are currently engagedin.

I think Iam going to bore you

but sombody listening to this tape

doesn't know about me so I suppose

we should cover the essentials.

I was born in Ireland, in Kerry,

70 years ago.

70 years ago. Don't forget

the 70, seven-zero.

I was educated in Ireland

and I joined the Jesuits in Ireland,

just before the war began,

and then after the war,

having done my philosophy,

they sent me to Belgium

for my studies, and then,

when I was finished,

they posted me to Rome

to the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

That's an institute in the Vatican

which trains professors of scripture.

It's fallen on evil days

asregards doctrine.

If you were an American Catholic in 1955,

the world would have looked

extraordinary to you.

Huge nembers of converts

were flowing into the Chuch.

Church were being built

at a huge rate.

Then the Vatican Council took place,

which was to renew

and reinvigorate the Church,

which was already growing hugely.

And BANG, within couple of years,

it all goes terribly wrong.

Churches are being closed.

Nuns and Priests

flocking out of the church.

The religious orders are winding down.

Every social problem which the Catholic

Church felt it had already solved

came back to bite it.

The Council was not

a boy-scout jamboree.

It was a collection of very human beings

who were involved in a battle

for the future of the Church.

They were talking about making

the Church more human.

more up-to-date. More modern.

More with it.

More of sevices to the world

instead of to dominate.

That was a vey exciting time

in the history of the Church.

Malachi Martin

was of immense in helping me

discover some of those people

who were out there making it happen.

Making the revolution happen.

-This was Vatican II?

-Vatican II.

1962 to 1965, formented

by the popes in question.

And by the cardinals.

The spirit amongst them was,

at all cost,

bt all means,

let's get with the world.

We've been isolated.

Let's modernise everything

And in order to do that,

in the Vatican Council,

they jettissoned sacred traditions

that had always been traditions

in the Catholic Church

back to the time of the first popes.

In the first century.

He was from Ireland.

He was um...

came from quite a large

brood of childen

As far as I know, he had only

one sister. I may be wrong.

But he had a number of brothers,

all of whom became rather

well-read and religious,

Catholic-religious in their own right.

The Martine brothers.

And Malachi was no slouch either.

He was following, pretty much

in his brothers' tradition.

He was like a young,

clerical Indiana Jones,

crawling around caves in the Middle East.

He was one of the original people

who helped decipher

the Dead Sea Scrolls.

He spoke multiple languages.

He was always

an unswervingly loyal Cathilic.

Loyal to the Papacy.

Loyal to our Lady in Christ.

That formed fis belief system

down to his core.

He definitely cut a very sexy figure.

At parties,

he would be the life of the party.

Telling his dirty jokes.

I became a good detective,

as I was, in fact,

a good correspondent for Time magazine.

I got to the bottom of everything.

He had all stories,

some of which

even turned out to be true!

Kaiser was a stringer for Time magazine

during Vatican Council II.

Kaiser was very deeply involved

with the Jesuits.

The Jesuits had always been afraid

that when Malachi left,

he would just spill the beans

about everybody.

Because he knew about everybody

in Rome.

So, I think that they decided

that they would get him

befoe he could get them.

And all of that came together

to fuel Kaiser's means

by which he was able

to express the hatred

and do as much damage

as he felt he could do to Malachi.

I just got deeper into the character

of Malachi Martin.

And so I wrote this book.

It's called Clerical Error.

And the error was not only his error,

but mine in not being alive enough

to the reality.

I decided that this was

too good a story to pass up

and that only I

could tell it,

because only I had the whole story

in hand

Only I had the willingness

to dig to the bottom of the story

and get it out there.

And so

I thought it might even

make a good movie.

I would probably make

a good documentary.

Because it is a fascinating tale.

True or not.

He made it clear that reason

why he left the Jesuit order,

in particular was because

in the 1930s,

the Jesuits, as with a lot

of other organisations back then,

took a vey hard0eft turn,

and I asked, I said,

"So, you could say

that after Vatican II, Mal,

the Jesuits were in left field?"

And he kind of smiled and said,

"No, they weren't in left field.

They were outside the baseball stadiem."

Pope John said he thought

that Malachi sould leave Rome.

Not the priesthood but leave Rome.

Because he said,

"If you stay..."

Iam saying this on camera, but anyway...

"If you stay,

you will become another fat cardinal

with another mistress

living outside of Rome."

He thought the best way for him

to remedy this

from his own perspective

was to get a document

from Pope Paul VI

that he called a rescript in Latin.

What that did was release him

from two of his three vows as a priest.

It release him

from the vow of obedience.

So he could leave the Jesuit order.

And It release him

from the vow of poverty,

because he would then

be able to make his way

pursuing a secular lifestyle

as an author in the West.

The only one of his vows that he kept to

and maintained until he died

was his vow of chasity.

He maintained that until his death.

Priests ae human beings,

first of all.

Human beings go through

all sorts of changes of mood

throughout their lives.

Privacy and the respecting of someone's

privacy is absoultely paramount.

Because I know that the relationship

between a priest

and his superior includes

all sorts of private information.

And I know that priest are

frequently given dispensations.

I personally would like

to see more evidence

that he was released

from two but not from three vows.

i simply would find it unsual

that ha had been realeased

from two and not from the third.

In 1964, I came over to America

and became an American citizen,

and I settle down in New York

and I write books here.

I do TV and radio.

You have written

a lot of books,

and particularly the books concerning

Roman Catholicism

and the Vaticans.

That's right.

When he first came, he had

no money, he had nothing.

He earned money the way he could.

He washed dishes and drove a cab.

He did what he could to make a living.

He worked at the Encyclopedia Britannica

but he did not ike that.

He said it was justing taking

somebody else's knowledge

and stuffing it in a book.

He didn't want to do that.

He wanted to his own work.

So, that didn't work out for him.

When I met him,

it wasn't his plan to

be a writer.

And I began to talk to him

about a writing career.

I said that if he would give me

a certain amount of time,

I would make him a successful writer.

But it takes time to do that.

He and I worked together then

for years.

As friends, and first I was

his editor and publisher,

and when I left

the publishing ide of publishing,

to become an agent,

he became my client.

I say mass every morning.

I'm a priest. I say my breviary.

The usual things.

That's about the sun total of it all.

I've published 15 books.

I am preparing a 16th.

That's my life story.

It's very uneventful.

But it's my life.

This is a man with a very clear anlysis

of what is happening.

He is putting words

to people's sense of unease

at the apparent implosion

of this perfect, huge church,

which, let's remember,

until a few years previously,

Catholicism was claiming it would be

the official religion of America.

Here comes Malachi Martin,

with all his skills,

analysis, intelligence and eloquence,

giving answers,

and that is why

he made suh a huge impact

and that's why many people

found he was a natural leader for them.

There is a new generation of people

who don't know what they should believe.

The Catholic Church's only strength

was unity.

Unity.

It's gone.

First off, people would

kill to be with Malachi Martin.

He meant a lot of people.

He brought the faith to them.

My first encounter with Father Martin

was a result of a priest

We both knew

at St.Agnes Church in New York.

We were chatting one evening and he said,

"Would you like to meet Malachi?

I know him.

You can share a meal with him."

We just got fairly well acquainted

over the course of that dinner.

In fact, it went so late that they

politely asked us around 23:30

would we mind leaving the restaurant

because the staff wanted to go home?

He was that kind of storyteller.

He was a very gentle, soft person.

He had a charming Irish accent

which absolutely fascinated me.

I never knew him like an equal.

To me, he was a mentor,

he was an advisor,

he was a spiritual director,

somebody I looked up to.

But he wasn't a friend, like

a colleague on the same level.

He was a friend,

and a very dear friend.

The fact that he was there

when my daughter died.

She was a newborn.

She only lived two weeks.

I wouldn't have been able

to hold it together,

I think, if Father Martin

hadn't been there.

And again, he didn't have to do that.

It was the middle of the night.

He jumped in a cab

and came all the way downtown

to be with us,

and to accompany us,

as we spent my daughter's

final moments here,

and as she... went on.

Tonight, I want to get off on a little bit

different tangent

and talk about your past experiences

as an exorcist.

Yes, that is a fascinating thing.

It's always fascinating

for a lot of people.

We must tell them beforehand

that exorcism and possession

is not a joy,

is not a happy thing.

Possession is a dirty, insalubrious,

unhealthy, mucky

and unpleasant situation

where you come across it.

But it is a necessary evil

in the sense that

we have to deal with it

once we meet people with it.

I met him one afternoon

and he had a fresh cuton his forehead

and I asked him what had hapened.

He said he was at an exorcism

and a foot stool came flying

through the air and hithim in the head

It's cost me a lot.

it's cost me two broken legs.

...Almost broken kneecaps.

And...a...

It endangered my life several times.

But I wasn't supposed to die.

Not yet.

And um...

It cost me a lot of hate.

A lot of my friends turned away.

They wouldn't walk with me

mo more, as the saying goes.

You'll give but you'll never

get back again.

Some bit of you dies

with every exorcism.

With everything she does,

some bit of her is consumed

and goes away,

I don't know where it goes.

God stores it up for you

and you are finally reunited

but you lose that value

that you use up.

You're use up.

It's all over.

You pay a price for anything decent

you do in this life.

And you don't get it back.

You're ennobled by it.

Strengthened by it.

Made more human by it.

More noble.

But you don't get it back.

After the Second Vatican Council,

a lot of people believed that

the baby was thrown out

with the bathwater.

From...the integral centre of

the faith was concerned.

Malachi was one of them.

He saw a lot of what he called

"the nonsense" going on.

And it also led to a general decline,

basically, in people's beliefs

in central things.

Including the existence of evil

and existence of the Devil.

Because in the wake

of all the changes in the 1960s,

people wanted to focus

on flowery love, forgiveness,

puppies in the sunshine,

and all that stuff.

We find out the majority of bishops in

this country didn't believe in the Devil,

didn't believe in exorcism.

Had dropped that idea.

So we said we'd have an underground.

We set up anunderground of exorcists

throughout the country.

And...

we...

That's how I got into it.

I've stopped sending them

to certain bishops now.

They send them off to see a shrink,

go to a home, rest up, get drugs.

And it only makes them worse.

Make it worse.

it's a terrible plight.

God and Satan cannot coexist.

I mean you cannot

you cannot worship

both of them.

You have to choose,

Malachi often said

that Satan and Christ

divide the world between them.

And the Church needs to make it very clear

who she is and what she stands for.

"When the Church asks publicly

and authoritatively

in the name of Jesus Christ

that a person or an object be protected

against the power of the evil one,

and withdrawn from his dominion,

it is called exorcism.

Exorcism is directed

at the expulsion of demons

or to the liberation

from demonic possession

through the spiritual authority

with which Jesus en trusted his church."

In the Catholic ceremony of exorcism,

we perform an exorcism,

not a type of exorcism or a blessing.

It is an exorcism.

There are two types of exorcism

in the Catholic Church.

The type that we perform

at every baptism

and then the type

we don't talk about very often.

We were taught as children that God

existed

and that the Devil existed,

and that God was more powerful

than the Devil.

I know that...

he can't be quite as candid

as he was with us

cos there's tapes and there's video.

But he is going to be very open.

I was going to classes

with Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Lorraine siad,

"Next week, Malachi Martin

is coming to speak with us."

I had no idea who he was.

She said he was an exorcist.

I thought, that's the coolest thing ever.

i can't wait.

I specifically chose to sit

in the back of the room

because I didn't want to hog

the spotlight in the front.

He spoke for an hour and a half or so.

At the end, a few of us got in line

to get our books autographed or say hi.

He immediately kept staring at me

down the line.

and...

I thought, oh, boy.

When he finally got to me,

he pointed to me

"Were you sitting in that back corner there?"

I said "yes",

He said, " You were

distracting me the whole time."

I said "what?"

He says, "You have a glow about you.

You are throwing off lights

like I have never seen before."

He said, "You are my favorite

person in this room right now."

He goes, "It's an honour to meet you."

An honour to meet me?

He made me feel so special that day

that I still remember whathe said.

I think about all the time.

They...lionized him.

They brought him to the various

churches around the USA

and paid him nice lecture fees.

They got him book contracts

to write these funny books.

They weren't funny.

They were just weird.

Books that told these people

what they wanted to hear.

He parlayed this into profit.

My name is Ralph Sarchie.

Iam a retired New York City

police sergeant.

also a demonologist.

Father Malachi Martin was my mentor

When I first started out

in what I call "work."

Iam a religious demonologist,

meaning that I approach this field

from a religious point of view.

I've assisted at exorcism.

And I investigates of demonic activity

and demonic possession.

Usually, Iam the first guy to go

in there to see if it's a genuine case.

If it is, then we set up an exorcism.

All through my career,

I saw a lot of crazy things,

But it wasn't what I experiences as a cop

that led me into the field of demonology.

It was more of an interest that went

a lot further than just reading books.

I actually got involved in it

and I was involved

with all the right people

in order to get to the point

when I am at in the field.

I try not to get emotionally involved

with my cases.

I can make mistakes when that happens.

I get emotionally involved

with people to a certain degree.

Because you know,

As Father Martin says,

in the studies that he did,

there is no common denominator

between all of these people who have had

genuine cases of possession

or genuine cases of infestation

in their homes.

There is no common denominator

between these peolple

except for one thing : they all suffer.

It's the suffering that's difficult,

because...

sometimes I get a case

and it takes me a few months to get there.

So...this is um...

one of the cops at work

arrested this guy.

I think, the guy was theatening him

-Is there more coffee there?

Well, I look at this way :

God puts people in your path

to teach you

and to direct you in what he needs.

And to serve his will properly.

And Father Martin had that place.

Basically, it was selfishness on my part,

the way I bacame his de facto driver

because he knew I had

a perfectly good working Jeep

and that we had a great time

whenever we were together,

talking, chatting, sharing

either a burger or a pizza. Whatever.

And I just made it known to him, I said :

"Mal, if you ever need to go anywhere,

I'd like mine to be

the first number you dial.

Because I am going to pick up

and it's always going to be a yes."

I had spoken with

Father Martin years prior

about children.

And the things that he had

told me is that...

God is going to allow more children

to become possessed genuinely

because of a chastisement

towards the parents.

And he said : "when you start

to see that happening,

that's when there is a turning point."

So I have been watching

and I have seen a rise in child possession.

Basically, within the last few years.

We also have this new phenomenon

called the demonic possession of children.

-Demonic possession of children?

-Three, four, five, six.

-Good heavens.

-Very frightening. Very fightening.

That morning,

when I got a phone call

from Father Malachi,

I actually thought that he was

calling to confirm our birthday lunch

that was going to happen

in a couple of weeks.

Instead, he asked me would I be willing

I already knew the way,

having been up there several times.

So I said : "sure, I'd be happy to."

while we were on the way up there,

I said :

"What's the main reason

for us coming up here today?"

He said : "You are going

to drop me off,

because...two hours after you drop me off,

there will be a family arriving

and they have with them

their small daughter,

and she is apparently

very severely afflicted

with something, they believe,

to be demonic."

I said : "Well, it's good thing

Iam dropping you off

two hours ahead of time.

Because I don't want to be

anywhere near it."

For me to go back up there

is basically to bring

a degree of calm to my soul.

If anything else.

Because...

I didn't know what the subsequent

events were going to be

after we went up to Connecticut.

He probably had a good idea

but he didn't tell me the whole

length and breadth of it.

There's very little truth

known about the Devil.

We do know from the Church

and from scripture

that Satan was one of the brightest

and most intelligent of the archangels.

Now, he did, though, rebel.

And apparently, there was a battle

between the good angels,

led by Michael the archangel,

against Lucifer,

the light-bearer, the son of the dawn.

So, he was defeated and condemned

to what we call "hell".

As far as we know,

God does love purity.

He does love compassion.

He loves beauty.

Look at the beautiful things,

he has created in nature.

But, God, in all those things,

he has one great preference.

Repentance.

He loves to exercise mercy.

How could he do that unless people who are tempted

and he had forgive them?

He didn't want a perfect world.

He wanted to have a world

in which he could exercise mercy.

So he gave Satan the power of tempting man.

I'm told that there's a Devil.

The Bible said so.

Jesus even said so.

The Pope often refers to the Devil

as a real person.

For all my love of Pope Francis,

I do not.

But Iam not prepared to say

that he's wrong and I'm right.

I will find out. I look forward

to my days

very soon...when I will embarked

on a new adventure,

finding out the answers

to all these questions that I've had

all my life

and didn't know the answers to.

If you deny the Devil,

if you deny the existence of Lucifer,

if you deny the existence of sin, of hell, eternal punishment,

you automatically deny Christ's salvation.

In fact,

you can't deny the existence of Lucifer

without being led inevitably

to deny the divinity and

function of Christ, our saviour.

What's the purpose in Christ coming?

To make a nice land,

to give us happy lives?

No, no! He came to save us from sin.

S-I-N.

The Church exists to answer real needs.

If those needs are not answered,

people simply walk away

and find the answers

they are looking for.

I can imagine a situation,

in the atmosphere of

the 1970s in New York,

where those needs were being expressed,

people were being turned away by priests,

being told that we'd moved on

from those old superstitions.

And yet people hadn't moved on

from that sense of affliction.

If those people, or even one of them

presented themselves

to Malachi Martin, I have no doubt

that he would respond,

pastorally, as a priest.

When a human being is possessed,

what is the purpose

of the possession of an indivisual?

The destruction of that indivisual's soul

to such a point that it must end up in hell.

I think everyone has

their own personal beliefs

about God and the Devil and spirituality.

But in terms of trying

to convince anyone,

I don't think we'd ever be

successful in convincing anyone.

Because there is still

no real hardcore evidence.

We can't point to,

"There's the Devil right there".

We have no picture of him.

I think people are going

to be sceptical,

until they see that picture.

And that's OK.

Scepticism is a healthy thing.

I would encourage that.

Don't accept anything at face value.

Question, question, question.

By turns he woould be talkative,

and by other turns he wouldn't be

introspective

and get kind of quiet.

And as we got closer,

between him and I,

there was an unspoken tension.

We could feel that we were

approaching something.

And...

You know, he had heard

my confession, my full confession,

about half an hour before,

So there was nothing weighing

on my conscience.

But still...

between the both of us,

there was really a sense of foreboding.

And I couldn't explain why.

My name is Matt Baglio.

I'm the author of The Rite:

The Making Of A Modern Exorcist.

Rom is really the capital

of exorcism in many ways.

I heard about this exorcism course,

which is really what brought me

into this topic of exorcism.

Before beginning the book,

I didn't know anything about exorcism.

I was very surprised

by a lot of the things I learned.

Here, in Italy,

there is probably 20 people

undergoing an exorcism

in Rome right now.

Thisexorcism course that we have

here in Rome, in our university,

was invented by a layman.

This gave me also the opportunity to work

to work with a famous,

at least in Italy,

very famous exorcist

called Father Gabriele Amorth.

We try to give a general outlook

of exorcism.

So we speakon the rite...

and it's a liturgic part.

But we also speak on the medical aspects

to try to help the priest to understand

the difference between schizophrenia

and the possession.

Between a person that is

on the drugs or on depression

and true possession.

Today, the hierarchy of the Church -

who some support this course

and some don't -

I think, want a more

cautious approach.

They want to embrace modern medicine

and modern science

but at the same time,

not discount their own past

and their own belief

that exorcism

is necessary

in certain rare instances.

One of the topics of this course was to try

and reintroduce priests

to the traditional teachings

of the Catholic Church

on a topic like the Devil.

There's many Catholic priests

who don't believe in exorcism.

I found that surprising.

They don't believe in the Devil

as a personified entity.

Because the were thinking of things

like Hollywood films and such.

It's very easy to laughat that

and say, well, I don't

believe in that either.

They were trying to remind priests that...

this is something the Church believes in

and goes back to the Bible.

We see that Christ,

he was the first exorcist.

He had many encounters with

persons possessed by the Devil.

We can read this scripture.

And he was able to cast out demons.

Then he gave this power to hus disciples.

The disciples were also able

to cast out demons.

"No one my lawfully exorcise the possessesd

without the special and express

permission of the local ordinary.

Jesus performed exorcisms,

and from him,

the Church has received the power

and office of exorcising.

The solemn exorcism,

called a major exorcism,

can be performed only by a priest

and with the permission of the bishop.

The priest must proceed with prudence,

strictly observing the rules

established bu the Church.

Illness, especially psychological illness,

is a very different matter.

Treating this is the concern

of medical science.

Therefore, before an excorcism is performed

it's important to ascertain that one is dealing with

the presence of the Evil One

and not with an illness.

Anneliese Michel died of starvation at 23.

A religious student

who spoke in stange voices,

doctors said she had epilepsy.

But she thought it was the Devil.

[woman mutters demonically]

And so did a panel of priests

who recorded the voices.

The priests who followed

this 17th century ritual believed

that it worked,

that Annelieses was

spiritually healed

when she died.

But a Bavarian prosecutor

says this bishop,

who authorised the exorcism,

the priests who performed it,

and the parents who allowed it,

could face criminal-neglect charges

for failing to get medical help

for the starving woman.

With science,

you start with an open tablet.

And open slate.

And everything is included,

and you just go along,

and exclude different variables

as you can.

Each one was very different.

Each one was very specific

and individualised.

So, I would try to rule out

mental illness.

Just rule out different factors.

Cognitive functioning.

Any psychotropic medications.

Ill side effects they may be experiencing,

if at all.

I am not afraid on the sceptics

because Iam also a sceptic on myself.

I don't believe that just any person

that arrives,

"I'm possessed." I am very sceptical.

And normal priest should be,

in a true sense, very sceptical.

To really grasp what it is.

And I can tell you that in my experiences,

as an exorcist,

more than 90% of the persons

that arive to me as an exorcist

telling me that they have problems

with the Devil,

they have no problems with the Devil

at all.

People say they are possessed all the time.

It doesn't make it true.

You have to rule it out.

Or rule it in.

[child] Then was brought unto him one

possessed with a devil,

blind, and dumb.

And he healed him,

insomuch that the blind and dumb

both spoke and saw

And all the people were amazed and said :

"Is this not the son of David?"

But when the Pharisees heard, they said:

"This fellow doth not cast out devils,

but by Beelzebub the prince of devils."

And Jesus knew their thoughts

and said unto them:

"Every kingdom divided against itself

is brought to dissolution.

Every city or house divided against itself

shall not stand.

And if Satan casts out Satan,

he is divided against himself.

How shall then his kingdom stand?

And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils,

by whom do your children cast them?

Therefore, they shall be your judges."

We now know

that there are people who programmed

children at the age of two,

reinforced it at seven,

confirmed it at 14 and 21.

Programmed to...

to worship Lucifer.

They become Luciferians.

They're turned out

by the thousands every years.

we know who does it, who'll do it,

we know when they do it,

but we can't do anything about it.

It's a free country.

It comes in various way.

The television has a lot to do with it.

Music has a lot to do it.

We have made a statistical survey

of the possessed people we've known

and there are a lot of them.

There's no ...

ethnic,

there's no religious,

there's no gender,

there's no intellectual,

there's no economic,

there's no rule.

It's of some peculiar alchemy inside.

Because it creeps up to you slowly.

Satan doesn't appear with a scroll

and says:

"You can have all these things

if you sell your soul to me."

Faustian, Mephistopheles.

It's not like that.

It's the simply things slowly but surely.

And the possession then

becomes so that at a certain moment...

...you are under the command of something

that takes possession of your will

bit by bit.

It's a slow process.

Until one day,

you can't say no

and you are possessed.

You are no longer free to choose.

How do you know

a perfectly possessed person?

It's a leading question.

Its a very easy question to answer

in one sense.

That...

is the test. By tests.

You know some, OK?

You might get involved with them.

You might even go to bed with her.

You work in the office with him,

you know him socially,

and you know him, you think,

until one day,

something happens and...

[whistles]

...you suddenly see a person

you never knew.

It's momentary.

The window on the camera opens

into reality.

You'll see it and then it's closed again.

That's the way you know it. Otherwise,

they can be good fathers,

they can be good statesmen.

They can be good bankers.

They can have sexual probity.

Everything. But they're possessed.

Completely given over to Satan.

Malachi told me many times.

He said that he thought, as a society,

the West and the world were heading

towards some kind of tipping point.

He fully expected that possibly

during his lifetime, or after,

what he used to refer to as,

"after I'm playing the harp,"

that there was going to come

some kind of event

that would define the end of

what he called the Catholic era

as we know it.

And because of that, he said

various events would be happening.

And possession, things like possessions,

would naturally increase as well.

I am sure you've all read that passage

in the Book of Deuteronomy where God says:

"This day, there are

two courses open to you.

And I'm telling you which one to follow."

On the one hand,

you can choose life and goodness.

One the other hand,

you can choose death and evil.

I truely believe that what I'm seeing now

with all the things that I've heard,

all the things that I've read about,

this is the lull before the storm.

Because I see us being taken in a direction

that father Martin basically described.

I don't like it one bit what's going on.

Over all and eveywhere,

throughout our community of nations today,

numbering roughly about five billion,

and chiefly by legalised abortion

but also by contraception,

by euthanasia,

by condoned infanticide,

by deliberately formenting civil wars,

by endemic hunger,

by the floods of refugees,

never before in the history of man

has the lifeblood of so many

been shed so violently,

so mercilessly wasted as in our day.

We specialise in the death of masses

as a community of nations today,

and we belong to that community

whether we like it or not.

So, anti-life, surely, that's us

We are anti-life.

Bloodstained guilt, surely.

Every 24 hours, we widen

that dark red pool of human blood.

We do. We do.

There's nothing underground with this.

You gotta see it.

If you don't have faith

and you don't have spirituality,

you're not gonna see it.

Your gonna miss

all the miracles of the supernatural.

And you're going to miss all the reverse

miracles of the preternatural.

And...

Open your eyes.

Find God and you'll see.

Lucifer has the most amazing PR.

He doesn't exist.

...World War Two,

which we were fighting,

was never to be known.

He has madeit so he doesn't exist.

The film business heading could read

"The Devil knocks out the mafia."

For in US and Canada cities,

the old box-office champ

The Godfather is being flattened

by that movie about diabolical possession,

The exorcist.

There was a very funny picture

called The Exorcist,

based on a book by William Blatty,

which was totally erroneous

as regards exorcism.

It's a phony, phony exorcism.

It makes out

exorcism to be a combination

of Frankenstein and Dracula

with a lot of green goo,

and windows breaking

and bodies flying.

It's much more terrible

and lethal than that.

Everything you see in The Exorcist

can happen.

But it could happen in an exorcist

over a lifetime...

It would be almost unheard-of

that it would appear

in a single indivisual

in one single case.

So, the movie tend to condense

a lot of phenomena.

I know one exorcist who told me

he has once only seen levitation

in 20 years as an exorcist.

Right? But he has seen it.

He saw a child floating around the floor.

When we were publishing

"Hostage To The Devil",

because Tony was such a good friend

of Peter Blatty,

we had some difficulty there.

They required Malachi

to get a letter from the Pope

saying that what he was,

what he said he was,

and exorcism was what it said it was.

And Malachi got a letter from Paul VI.

And Peter Blatty,

when he heard about this,

just hit the ceiling.

He just...

Exorcism was his.

And not only did he not write

a blurb for the book,

he wrote a review of the book

in the Los Angeles Times,

the opening line of which was,

"I hate this book."

When I wrote that book in 1975,

I wrote it for one reason only.

I wrote it because I found

my contemporaries

in America and Canada and

Australia and Ireland

had forgotten what it was all about.

They didn't know it existed any more.

So I decided,

as I was in that field,

doing a lot of work,

that I would get and publish

the transcripts of five to ten exorcisms

and publish them as such with a preface.

So I read Malachi Martin's book

early on.

It definitely made an impression on me.

It's a very dramatic portrayal of exorcism.

There's no doubt about it.

Here he was, a Catholic priest,

writing about a topic that many people

didn't know anything about,

and whatever want to say about

"Hostage To The Devil",

it's definitely a gripping read.

Even today.

My name is John Zaffis.

I'm a paranormal investigator

and demonologist.

I've been involved with the field

for 42years,

investigating a lot of different claims

of hauntings,

and the possibility of possession.

You know, years ago,

people used to look forward to sitting down, reading a book

and "Hostage To The Devil"

is probably one of the very first books I was reading

in regards to some of this work.

And I finally had

the opportunity to meet him

when he was speaking at a small event.

He would have this look,

you notice with a lot of spiritual people.

They're trying to get

a good sense of you.

You have to remember,

when you get involved with this field,

it's so important to be able to be guarded

and carefully with

the people you associated yourself with.

Because people will go after you

in a heartbeat

you know, be able to tear you down.

He was on a downward spiral

of more and more myths.

"Hostage To The Devil"

was an account of his...

...efforts to cast the Devil out

of various people who had been...

...possessed by the Devil.

And by all critical accounts,

his account didn't really stand up.

It did exremely well.

As time went on, it outsold "The Exorcist".

and is still in print

and still on sale.

It has sold well over a million copies.

It appealed to his romantic nature

to have a romantic tale to tell.

He did very well.

He sold a few books. More than a few.

On one hand, you could say

he was always interested

in the most sensational story

that he could make up.

On the other hand,

there are those who think

he, Malachi Martin himself,

somewhat possessed by the Devil.

And... for him to cast himself in the role

of someone who could cast devils out

was a really neat trick.

-Have you ever been possessed?

-No, thank God.

Some of the critics think maybe

you were when you wrote this book.

Well, may the Lord cure me

if I have been possessed.

I doubt that you have been.

There is one thing that people

have to understand.

He broke ground.

He went public.

He started doing appearances

and radio shows,

talking about this topic.

Demonology.

Possession.

These things exist.

These things do happen.

He was crucified, basically,

behind the scenes,

with the Church,

with people ridiculing him.

"Misrepresentation, falsehood,

and imagination

gone berserk all in the elaboration

and defence of a particular thesis."

Well, do you know what Ben Jonson said,

when somebody said similar words

about a work of his?

He said: "When a gentleman

throws mud at me,

I know he has only got mud to throw."

You know, I don't respond to critics.

I don't really care

what critics have to say.

I believe that Father Martin

felt the same way.

We more interested in pleasing God

than pleasing our fellow man.

If you mention God,

they want to boo you.

If you mention Jesus,

they want to boo you.

They want to take it out

of the Pledge of Allegiance.

And... the Ten commandments, and all this.

But you know what,

oddly enough,

"In God we trust" is on our money.

I don't see anybody throwing that away.

So, you know what,

if you don't believe in God,

and you want to remove all of...

then take every penny you have

and give it away!

Right now!

Don't wait.

Give it away.

Because God's name is on the money.

You're a hypocrite at that time.

Walk the walk.

I never met the man in person

that I interviewed him

for countless hours on the radio.

I was very fortunate.

We became close friends.

I don't think you could listen to Malachi

and not have a strong opinion,

one way or the other.

I've received a lot... not a lot,

a few angry, very angry, faxes.

I'm sure you have. I'm sure you have.

"How dare you, Art, expose the audience

to this...

old-fashioned, put-the-fear-

of-God-in-them hellfire-and brimstone--

people are vey angry.

They are.

I know they are very angry.

But as I say, my reading of the really,

really, really angry ones...

is that this disturbs their way of life.

This manifests "a weakness".

This tells the truth

about the way that they live

and they don't like to be

reminded of it.

He certainly brought it off very well.

He made lots of money,

writing these books,

and making many appearances

on radio and television.

However,

what did it all add up to?

Huge disappointment on the part of those

who finally saw through him.

Father Martin, where can I write to you?

Following address. Take it.

217 East 66th Street, New York, New York.

He gave out his personal information

because he wanted to help people.

Do I think it was a good idea?

No.

I warned him very carefully

that this might not be such a good idea.

I did that because of the thousands

of emails that I receive daily.

I knew what it was in for.

The phone was ringing off the hook.

I looked at the answering machine,

wondering why it wasn't answering.

And it said, 99.

I began to listen to the messages.

Of course, it was everybody...

thought that they were possessed

and wanted to talk to him.

And I called Malachi and asked

what had gone on

He apologised and he said:

"I didn't want to give my number

so I gave yours.

I promise I'll never do it again."

I don't think I've ever met

a person with such strong charisma.

He drew you in.

Very, very charming.

Highly intelligent.

Well-versed on so many topics,

in the worldly sphere

as well as the spiritual sphere.

I did hear it from the other side,

because I heard from a couple of people

who were absolutely devastated

because he sort of pelled the plug

on the relationship.

So, I know how much it hurt the people

when that happend.

Then, of course, I dreaded that

that might happen to me.

I don't know what else I can say,

but,

it's true, yes, people obviously

must have gotten to be too possessive.

And I can see why.

He was absolutely tantalising.

He was a charming guy

who told very witty stories.

Some of them even fairly obscene.

Because he was so unusual,

most of us around our dinner tables

would give him a pass.

We would say: "That's Malachi.

He's just being Malachi."

Unfortunately,

men being men,

Malachi Martin being a man,

Malachi Martin...

"fell in love",

at least he said he did, with my wife.

So, they began an affair.

I didn't want to think

that he was having an affair with my wife.

Therefore for a good long time,

I was in denial.

So...

he was just a liar

and a scoudrel and a cheat.

I'm glad that I will be judged

by our Lord Jesus

because I don't want to be judged by anyone

I'd be condemned to hell by them.

Because I'm a filthy pig.

[nervous laughter]

I know me x2

better than anybody.

I know I don't deserve a darn thing.

I never saw an ego

and I was driving with him

I said to him: "Father,

I want to attain your holiness."

and he said, "to me?"

"I'm a wretched pig in the eyes of God."

I almost crashed the car.

"If you're a wetched pig,

then I'm finished."

There's no way

that I'm attaining heaven.

I know this for a fact.

But he's a warrior.

He was a warrior for God

and he still is a warrior for God.

Started out back in 1984.

Graduated from Catholic univercity

with a degree in Soviet studies,

interestingly enough.

From there, I went to work

for the US Goverment

into the Center Intelligence Agency.

I stayed there till '97.

A lot of the work was

highly classified,

so I'm not really at liberty

to talk a whole lot about it.

It's very strange

but I haven't been up here in years.

And I'm feeling some of those feelings right now.

So... its very, very mixed feelings.

Feelings of fear.

I always felt there was a limited

amount to what could do to protect him.

Because after a while,

I just came to realise

what he was up against was not

something a goverment badge

or a weapons going to do anything against.

You know, the goverment can

train you do all kinds of things.

But for things that are in the world

we can't see,

they don't train you for that.

He always reffered to NYPD

involvement in exorcism

as being a very oblique thing.

Only because he couldn't take the chance

that someone with loose lips

was going to run

to the New York Daily News

or the New York Post

and make the claim that

the New York Police Dept

was helping to cast demons out of people.

So, his involvement

with the New York City Police Dept

would have been

probably more along the lines of

his interaction with people

like Ralph Sarchie.

But it was never an official policy

that the NPYD would ever call in

an exorcist.

All of these are my notes.

What this is all about.

Sometimes it's difficult

but most of the times you know

because of the way the person behaves,

you know they are not mentally ill.

There's something else.

And a good exorcist

and a good investigator

will get to the bottom of that.

It might take time

but it can be done.

[moaning]

So it must be a priest and he must

have authority from the bishop.

I know bishops.

We've gone to them and said:

"Look, John so-and-so

or Mary so-and-so

they needs exorcism,

your Honor, your Excellency,"

but a lot of it

is left up to the exorcist.

At a certain moment, I must

turned around and say to you,

to the possessed person. "Who are you?"

An exorcist never answers

the question of a possessed person.

You keep at it and find their names.

All of the names.

Ugly names.

Sinister names.

Sardonic names.

Once you do that,

you have them nailed.

Because then they obey that name.

They act on counsel of that name.

Then you proceed to find out

who sent them,

how did they cime here, when,

what's your speciality, what do you do?

It's like a dog

trying to get away from you.

It'll bite your hand. It'll bite you

mortally if you're not careful.

It's amazing how weak people are

when facing the supernatural.

Because once the supernatural

manifests itself,

I've seen strong men

collapse in tears.

It's just too much. Too much.

It's very frightening.

If they measure thier intelligence

with his intelligence,

they're going to be taken captive.

Malachi Martin had

a very deep relationship with

would never deceive him

about anything so...

when Rama Coomaraswamy

called him up

and asked Malachi to caome up

and meet this young girl...

Malachi didn't hesitate.

Especially since there was a child

at stake here.

Because a child that young

cannot make a choice for evil

with full consent of the will.

can't do it.

Picture a little kid like that.

She can't make a choice like that.

That, by the way,

that's the other reason why

a child like that could never

become perfectly possessed.

In order to perfectly possessed,

as Malachi would've put it,

you have to give

your full consent of the will.

He was not adventure-seeking.

He knew the dangers.

He knew the perils but he was not

in any shape to do that exorcism.

Physically and spiritually,

perhaps he did not have

adequate protection, either.

But he put himself on the line

and in the line of danger

because there was a little girl

and the family didn't have or

didn't feel they had other recourse.

The first feeling I had was dread.

And it was building dread.

And I can't explain why.

It was like I mentioned.

I knew that

at the Catholic Church would put it,

I was in a state of grace.

I had nothing to really worry about.

But still...

I think we have all been

in those situations where...

you feel a gnawing sense of unease.

And it just kept building.

It just kept building and building.

It's power over the will.

You don't wake up in the morning

and say: "gee whiz, I've been possessed."

It's always a slow process

to which you consent.

If you open your heart to Satan,

he'll accept the invitation.

It's not...

He won't refuse.

If someone is going to allow him in,

he'll take it.

he'll take the opportunity.

I asked your disciples to cast him out,

and they were not able.

and he asked them:

"O, faithless generation,

how long am I to be with you?

How long am I to bear with you?

Bring to me."

They brought the boy to him,

and when the spirit saw him,

immediately, he convulsed the boy.

He fel on the ground

and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked his father:

"How long has he had this?"

He said: "From childhood."

[sighs] 17 years.

17 years and at this moment,

it feels like it

fucking happened yesterday

Here we are.

Oddly enough, I got a tightness

in the chest as we approach the house.

I also know that it's mixed

with a lot of sadness.

I mean, on a very real human level,

we're talking about a man

who, you know...

for the many years I knew him,

11, 12...

he was family to me.

He was family.

And now I'm approaching the point

at which he came face to face

with something that none of us

have ever encountered,

that was ultimately responsible

for taking his life.

So I feel a mixture of sadness,

a mixture of apprehension,

fear

and anger at what happened to him.

It took my friend,

it took my goddamn best friend away.

He was my best friend.

Jesus.

Funny thing is, I just thought

I'd be a whole lot calmer.

My heart is racing

like a goddamn drum.

We pulled in.

Their van was right there.

Actually, it was a Ford Explorer.

We drove up

and I just said to Malachi:

"Is that them?"

Because they were milling about.

I said: "They are not

supposed to be here."

He didn't say anything

and I, at that point,

I just knew by the look on his face

that was them.

Can you sit in that chair for a second?

-Why?

-Because,

Focus.

I was with a group

that investgated haunted houses.

We almost all had specialities,

we had a doctor, a nurse, a psychologist.

I was more of a videographer.

I would take pictures, take video.

help restrain.

A producer from ABC

came across our website.

We had a featured article about

a possible possession case

we were working on.

They asked if we were interested

in doing a primetime special

on that, we said,

of couse we're interested.

This is about 20-25 years ago.

There were no shows on TV.

This was all before

the paranormal investigators.

I think we were trailblazers

but even in doing the invetigations,

examinations and assessments of the people,

I didn't have a role model for that.

There was no textbook

that you can just open up and study.

I just kind of learned

at I went along through experience

with the different cases,

with the different families,

and with the different people involved.

There were certain people in the group

that felt

all the cases that came to us

were possessed.

I personally did not feel that way.

My personal opinion

and my professional opinion at that point,

I ruled out

a significant number of those cases.

If you're asking for a ratio,

I would say probably

close to two-thirds I would rule out.

This is outr first exorcism

we ever were in volved with.

We actually went to the house.

It wasn't in the church.

We didn't know what was going to happen

because the girl didn't believe

she was possessed.

We weren't sure either, she said

"I probably won't have any reaction."

But that morning, I was just

a very angry feeling in that room,

very cold, the temperature in the room

dropped many, many times.

It would vary up and down, up and down.

As soon as the priest started doing

his litany of the saints,

she started moving around in her chair

and screaming,

breaking out of her restraints

and she just stoop up like this,

broke out of every restraint we had

and went towards the priest.

She was trying to gouge

her own eyes out.

During that point, I tried restrain

her own hands from doing that.

She bit me.

We both got out of the car

at the same time.

I went around to him

and he said:

"Let's do some introdutions

and then you can leave."

We got out and walked over

towards where they were.

The introductions were made.

And then...

this little child, she just walks

up to Malachi over here.

She just looks up at him

and she says:

"You're Father Malachi

and you think you're going to help her."

At that point, I just knew that I was up against something that nothing had ever trained me for.

And Malachi just

kept on acting like

she was a perfectly normal little girl.

I knew something was off.

Did I know she was possessed? No.

But I knew something was off.

We are talking about a four-year-old child.

She was innocence personified.

There was no reason why this kid

should've been afflicted in this way.

Malachi just kind of gave me "the look",

as in, "This is my turf now, Bob,

You don't need to be here.

You shouldn't be here."

It was not my place to be in there at all.

One of the realities

or the characteristics

that you need to see

if a person is possessed

is one of the signs.

You need four signs.

An extraordinary strength.

The knowledge of ancient languages.

Fear of sacred things.

And the knowledge of hidden

or very far-away things.

I think that the three first

can be invented.

I can fake an extraordinary force.

I can talk to you in Latin or Greek.

Because I remember it from school.

I can fake that I'm afraid

of the crucifix.

I can fake it.

But what I cannot invent

or cannot fake

is to know things

that really happened in your life

that's just absolutely impossible

fir me to know.

Well, you always go to the commonsense.

Maybe she heard us talking.

Or she heard a conversation that we had.

Or maybe her mother knew something about us

that she just inadvertenly

blurted out to her.

Maybe she read something about us

on the internet, on the website.

You try to have those commonsense

approach things.

But sometimes you just know

there's no way they could've known that.

There are very personal things

about our families,

personal events that have happened

that morning.

There's no possible way.

Something I didn't even talk about

with my colleagues.

How would they know that?

I can't explain it.

One of the things that convinced me

that there's something to this,

in very rare cases,

there is something to this,

beyond simple superstition

or active imagination,

was the fact that I was able

to interview people

who were not Catholic priests,

who were sceptics,

who were scientists,

who themselves had these experiences.

And they couldn't explain them.

And there were matching up with what,

the exorcists were saying,

they were seeing themselves.

The real horror, the real pain,

what hurts in possession

in the presence of the Evil One.

And when we start an exorcism,

within the first 20 minutes, we know

whether it's genuine or not.

Seddenly, it becomes evident.

How evident

Like an indivisual animal clawing at you

with claws you can't escape.

There are physical manifestations

like change in temperature,

smells, odours,

objects flying around,

and then there's violence on the part

of the possessed person at times.

They have to be held down.

Thats's why you have assistants

who are not afraid.

Because a lot of people the moment

they enter their first exorcism,

it scares them,

it's the most unhealthy, insalubrious

mucky, dirty, inhuman activity

you could participate in,

but we must

in order to save these people.

The exorcist and his assistants

and the possessed person

are in the presence

of something that hates us

in a way that you've never

felt hated before.

When you get beyond the sensational,

like I did,

when I was watching these exorcisms,

it's one of the things

that really stand out in your mind,

These people are suffering.

And you, from a human level,

you want to help them get better.

We are tested oftentimes.

And that morning was no different.

That exorcism went on

for a number of hours, I believe.

But afterwards, there was

such a change in the room.

It was absolutely beautiful.

I can't,

words cannot even describe the change.

When they first approached us,

I think we were more excited to be on TV.

And after it came out,

we saw the impact that it had

and how many people were in need

around the country.

They said,

they can't find help in their area.

We are talking about real people

who are suffering.

Real people who want healing.

Those people deserve peace.

Those people implore for peace

that only the Church can give

when they are in these grave situations.

I came back for him two hours later.

At the time, it was a beautiful summer day.

I came down the driveway in my Jeep.

I just remember there was a Ford Explorer.

It was a tan vehicle.

It was parked right about here,

caddy-corner almost facing

that house in the background.

And everyone was out,

starting to say their goodbyes.

I saw them proceeding out

from the house in the back there.

I pulled up right over here.

And I got and I saw Malachi

talking to the parents first.

And then the parents were getting

in the vehicle

and they were helping the little child

into the vehicle into the back seat,

and the mother had rolled the window down,

and Malachi, after he had

said goodbye to the parents,

he had walked over

to say goodbye to the child,

and I remember when the window

went down,

just as he got there to the window,

as the glass came down,

I remember her face

kind of framed in the window.

And she just blew him a kiss,

it was disgusting, lascivious,

it was like something

was defiling innocence at that moment.

The kind of way you imagine a whore

blowing a kiss to a John

who had just paid her hundred bucks.

That's what it was.

Malachi was completely nonplussed.

It is exremely rare

for a four-year-old

to have a mental illness at that age.

I don't know the particulars of this case

but if she was sexually provocative

at the age four.

That could be a learned behaviour

through sexual abuse.

But again, at the age of four,

it's very rare for a child of that age

for it to be explained by mental illness.

Or again, substance abuse.

Substance-induced psychosis.

Schizophenia.

Things of that nature.

To the sceptics, I would say

that the people that I met that day,

they seemed like in every way,

the all-American family.

There was nothing

to indicate anything like that

Something went on

in the conversations inside the house

that convinced a senior exorcist

of the Roman Catholic Church

and Dr.Rama Coomaraswamy,

an actual medical psychiatrist,

that something was afflicting this girl

that was not of this world

and could not be explained

by modern medical science.

We went up the driveway and I said:

"So, do you think it's an authentic case

of possession, Mal?"

And he said: "I've got no doubt.

But this one is going to be difficult."

I remember my phrase for that was,

hammer and tongs.

I said: "You're talking hammer and tongs?"

He said: "Yeah."

Then he just kind of nodded

and he was quiet for a while,

as we drove off.

People would be inclined to think

that the hostage is the person possessed.

But actually, no, it's the priest

who goes the exorcism.

Malachi had been the subject

of several heart operations.

He always tried to come across

as very robust.

But you know these things, exorcisms,

they have to take a toll on you.

Once you realise

you are dealing with a reallity here

then you realise there is a price

to be paid

and every exorcism

took a little chunk out of his life.

For Malachi,

his own personal health

was never a concern to him.

It was of paramount concern

to the people around him.

He was told by the doctor

to take it easier

and to cut out a lot of what he was doing.

But it's an element of the true priest

needs to be another Christ,

that is what he is called to be.

To lay your life on the line.

The more he would help people,

the more he would become a target.

It affects their personal lives,

it affects everything about them.

And it's a very isolating world.

The phone rang that morning

and it was Malachi's voice

on the other end,

speaking in a very strained, weak voice.

His exact words were,

"Bob, I've taken a bit of a tumble."

I said: "What do you mean?"

He said: "I've hit my head.

I was reaching for a book,

standing on a stool in my study,

and I had the stool

knocked out from under me."

"What do you mean,

it was pushed out from under you?"

He said:"Old Scratch wasn't terribly happy

with what we just did up in Connecticut."

I know that person said

that he claimed that someone pushed him.

What is unclear about that, of course,

is whether it was an evil spirit

or a human.

Some said that he was

pushed off the ladder.

Done in because he had

this terrible history behind him.

They wanted to shut him up.

I know it was horrific.

He said he wanted me to know that

he hadn't fallen, it wasn't a fall.

This creature had grabbed him

just above his ankle

and caused him to fall.

When he went to the hospital,

he lapsed into a coma.

They were restrcting the access of people

into his room, a semi-private room

in Lennox Hill Hospital.

I'm not ashamed to say

I was bawling like a little child.

Here was my best friend in a coma.

I knew he wasn't hearing me

with his ears.

Hopefully, he was hearing me

with his soul.

I had a tremendous sense in that room

that a struggle was continuing.

Even though he was comatose.

That's why the prayers that we made

and we sent to protect him

were so important.

About a day and a half later,

I just got a call, I believe,

from his agent, Lila,

that Malachi had passed away.

I remember just hanging up the phone

and going into my office at home

and just praying the rosary

immediately for his soul.

"We have the intent

to want to receive God.

Doesn't hold any weight with Jesus?"

When I heard that he had passed on

to his final reward,

because that's he got,

I was sad to see him go

and it scared me a little bit

because I lost my mentors now.

It's like, uh oh, you know?

What do I do now

if I come upon something that I don't know?

But I miss him

and I would like to talk to him

and I still do talk to him.

[laughter ]

I think he knew what he was doing

he knew the risks

and yet he went for it.

Personally, I feel it was a great victory

for the Adversary.

I think that he was taken too soon

and ...

prematurely.

The Adversary hit its mark in that.

So, it was a great tragedy.

Father Martin had told me

about this particular case.

The girl was four-years-old at the time.

When she was eight, four years later,

I assisted at her exorcism.

This girl needed

years and years of exorcism.

There was no doubt about that.

We weren't dealing with a demon.

We were dealing with the Devil here

and he was very, very powerful.

She spoke fluent Latin

during that exorcism.

I can produce eight-year-old children

that can speak fluent Latin

but they're traditional,

they're been trained since first grade

on how to speak Latin.

I know this particular girl

didn't have that background.

She was actually.

-Who taught you that?

-No one.

-No one?

-No one.

-Not your fatheror anybody?

-No.

How do you know it, then?

Mmm...I just know it.

Speaking in a language that is not

known previously to that person

is a surefire sign of demonic possession.

From what I seen during the exorcism,

We did get that proof right out

of the playbook of the Roman ritual.

This particular case was definitely

on a different level.

I do hope that she did find

the relief that she sought.

Most of all, I hope her soul belongs

to God at this moment,

no matter what her physical condition is.

I hope that her soul belongs to God.

I adjure you, Devil.

-You want me to say it?

-Yeah.

I adjure you, Devil.

-To be gone.

-And leave me alone.

-Now and for ever.

-I hate you.

-And you are a Devil.

Amen.

If you contact the HQ of the Jesuits

in Rome, the Jesuit curia.

which is a large building

in the shadow of the Vatican,

they will give you a number of facts,

if they choose to give you

any information at all.

They'll tell you that Malachi Martin

was a Jesuit priest.

They'll tell you that he was in Rome

between certain dates

but there are not certain of the role

or the authority which he had.

They will tell you that he did, at a stage,

work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

According to the Jesuits,

when Malachi Martin left Rome in 1965,

he was no longer a priest.

Malachi Martin had no right

legitimately to perform exorcisms

unless by express permission

from the local bishop.

It's hard for some characters

to get off the stage.

If you know when to get off the stage,

still leaving some questions

in mind of the audience,

you've done pretty well.

According to the Jesuits,

Father Martin no longer a priest

when he left them in '65.

basically, once you're a priest,

you're always a priest.

Father Martin never renounced his vows.

As a matter of fact, he probably

strengthened them

from the outside of the Church.

Which is where God wanted him.

They don't like it.

That's the truth.

You know, I think we're all blessed

with intuition and instinct.

So, when we walk into a room

and there

is someone afflicted in that room,

you know it, you feel it, you see it.

Sometimes you know it

because you even see the person,

before you even go into the room.

Sometimes you know it

when you are driving up to the house.

It's just a gut feeling.

I believe that to be

all the source within us

responding to

what source is not.

I've noticed in all the evidence

I have tried to present to the public

they are either gonna believe

or not gonna believe.

It's very hard to change

somebody's beliefs.

But just getting the word out

is all you can do.

And you can help somebody along the way,

that's great.

I've been doing this for 20 years.

If I helped one person who was

genuinely possessed, it's all worth it.

These are very, very

sophisticated spirits

who are there to harm us.

And they are real.

One thing that I've noticed

is that since his death,

interest in his work and in him

has not really diminished.

He was absolutely confident

in everything he said.

And he used the means at his disposal,

which were the media,

to get the message across.

So it was his confidence

in what he was saying

that really struck me.

And there is a certain element of mystery.

He was a fascinating man.

He also said a lot of things

to me in private.

We did talk a great deal.

And he shared some of those which

I cannot share with you or anybody

because I promised.

What he did say:

"If you want something chilling,

imagine the very worst you can imagine

and then I will tell you that it's going

to be much worse than that."

I think that if one looks

at these tapes,

we may touch on

the evidence that we now have

that Satan is having his last stand.

This is his Waterloo

and he is going to kill a lot,

destroy much, scorched-earth policy.

Destroy as much as he can

before he shoved into the abyss again,

chained by Michael

I do believe that Malachi Martin

started to believe his own lies.

He was so convincing.

Some people didn't exactly hate him.

They felt sorry for him.

Because he had gone off the rail.

I geuss the charisma was truth.

Because that's really... what he

That was his message.

His message was the truth.

And...

Everyone had to make that decision.

Whom do you believe?

This man tells the truth.

Whom do you believe?

In many ways, his life was a war.

It's a war story. But it's a war

against what Christ said

is against the powers

and the principalities not of this world.

And he dedicated himself 150% to that.

He was just the most fascinating

person I've ever met in my life.

Hands down.

That's it.

There is hope, more than hope.

We have surety.

We are assured that everything is going

to be

optimum and better than it was before.

But we also have the assurance

that Christ had

when he knew that he would

rise again on the third day

and ascend gloriously into heaven.

and reign for ever

He knew and we know

that in between us,

and that successful

outcome of our present quandary

and misery

is going to be extremely painful.

We know that from history.

We know that from scripture.

We know that the worst is yet

to become before it turns around.

So we are commenting on a dire situation

into which we have been plunged.

Not by God,

but by the mistakes of men,

the mistakes of popes,

the mistakes of bishops,

the mistakes of priests,

the mistakes of nuns

and the mistakes of lay people.

Everybody has their share in it.

But God's law is

that he purnishes the whole race

for the sins of few.

There is one more thing about Lucifer

which we should remember,

and it's this,

We have no protection against him.

Of ourselves.

No one can match him.

On this earth.

No one.

-I am sorry

-for having offended thee.

-And I detest my sins

-above every other evil

-because they displease thee, my God

-And I firmly resolve,

-by thy holy grace,

-never more to offend thee,

-but to amend my life. Amen.

My friends, this is the blessed sacrament.

I always carry it with me.

He has been with us

all this time.

-Amen.

-Okay.

-Thank you.

I didn't know that.

I didn't know he'd been with us.

Father Martin carries

the big guns, Lorraine.

Hostage to the Devil (2016) - full transcript

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