ROME, Dec. 31, 2001 — The Roman Catholic Church's best-known exorcist led the way down a long hallway that was dark but not particularly spooky, dim in a way that evoked only thrift, to the small office where he performs his rite.

The Rev. Gabriele Amorth, who is an awfully jolly priest given his specialty, did not even take Christmas off this year. These are boom times for his opponent, after all, Father Amorth said. Exhibit A: the world. He sees 10 people a day, give or take, for demonic possessions, obsessions and lower-grade infestations.

In Italy Father Amorth is a well-known author whose book "An Exorcist Tells His Story" has been reprinted 17 times. He describes his life, though, as a hard one, spent misunderstood and marginalized, although never wholly disowned, by his own church, which these days mostly seems embarrassed by the ancient rituals he has refused to update.

Lately Father Amorth, who is 75, has been in all the papers again, this time for taking on Harry Potter.  When he recently told ANSA, the Italian news agency, that the Devil was behind Harry, luring children into supernatural adventures, he set off a debate in newspapers and Catholic chat rooms.

In truth, though, the exorcist himself does not seem all that exercised by the young wizard from Hogwarts. "If children can see the movie with their parents, it's not all bad," Father Amorth said in an interview, so mildly that it was impossible not to wonder whether he was not a little bit grateful to Harry.

Certainly he is eager to get out the message that the evil Lord Voldemort of the Potter stories is a softie compared with the real You-Know-Who. "Wars are mostly caused by the Devil; certainly Hitler was consecrated to Satan, and Stalin," he said. "I prefer not to mention living persons."  He has been known to, though. Just last summer he blamed the Devil for Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo's temporary defection, when he was briefly married to a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in New York.

Father Amorth said the same of a teenage couple convicted of murdering the young woman's mother and brother in Italy last winter. Later the police did report that the two had been reading satanic books. He doesn't seem to hold that against them, though.  Most of the people seeking his professional services are psychiatric cases, he says. "I won't see them until they've seen a doctor first," he said, "and most come after they've seen many, many doctors."

Often he even teams up with psychiatrists, and in listening to him talk it is remarkable how much he would seem to have in common with these colleagues.  Those who complain that therapists let people with imperfect childhoods off the hook for their own behavior, for instance, would really hate Father Amorth's conviction that the possessed person "isn't a bad person, only a suffering one."

Sometimes the person has been dabbling in magic, he said. But most of the time "the problem is the result of a spell, and, in that event, there can be no guilt," though a proper spell is rather hard to come by "because most magicians are fakes and cheaters."  Some of his clients have been with him as long as Woody Allen's movie persona has been on the couch. One has been coming for 16 years. Father Amorth's goals, too, are health and honesty: "I never ask them to become Catholic but to live an honest life."

His father and grandfather were lawyers. After fighting in the Italian resistance as a teenager, he studied the law, too, and was deputy to Giulio Andreotti in the Young Christian Democrats, long before Mr. Andreotti became Italy's seven-time prime minister.  Father Amorth's calling, though, was the church, and later, at the request of his bishop, exorcism. In a drafty back office of the Society of St. Paul, when asked how he works, he showed the crucifix and baptismal oil he uses and playfully spritzed some holy water around the room.

Of course his métier predates the New Testament, in which Jesus casts out demons. In the fall of 2000 the Vatican confirmed Father Amorth's announcement that the pope, too, had said a prayer of exorcism over a young woman who had begun screaming and writhing during his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square.  Yet the Catholic Church is largely mum about the Devil these days. You hardly ever hear a thing about him, Father Amorth said. Meanwhile, he added, the hierarchy is busy trying to tie the exorcist's hands with modern new rules.

"I have bad relations with a number of different cardinals because they have a total ignorance of these problems," he said, rolling his eyes. Two years ago the church came out with an all-new rite that he calls useless.  "We can't touch curses, we can't talk to the Devil, and we can do an exorcism only when it's a sure possession, which, since the exorcism itself is diagnostic, can't possibly work," he said. "An unnecessary exorcism never hurt anybody."

For a real education, he suggested, the hierarchy might want to check out the 1973 horror movie about his line of work. "I'm very grateful to 'The Exorcist,' " he said, promoting that movie far more energetically than he had bad-mouthed Harry Potter, "because they made known what we do."

OCCULT PRACTICES IN THE SCHOOLS
"Teach your children to beware of the occult practices now being dabbed into your school curriculums. It is evil; it has been placed there by satan.
     "Do not scoff and laugh at these words and the words of My Mother; they are words in fact and truth. It has been told in the past, through generations of time, that this man of perdition would enter upon your world, and he is here! Because you have given yourselves over to evilness, corruption, satan has had to be loosed now among you." - Jesus, September 13, 1977

ASTROLOGY, OUIJA BOARD
"Do not accept the false religions of the evil one. Many have given themselves over to astrology, tarot cards, ouija boards, and now you have reaped your reward in murders and bloodbaths, and a form of insanity in the young...." - Jesus, September 13, 1977

SATANIC CULTS
"There has been much publicity afoot in your country and the world about the existence of satanic cults. I must tell you they do exist. They worship satan, and they are the opposite of all Christianity. They will do the opposite of what is asked in the Bible. Therefore, they kill with no remorse. They steal your children and brutalize them." - Our Lady, June 18, 1987

SCHOOLS
"My children, you will make a concerted effort to take and purge from your schools the practice of the occult. Already, many of your children have entered into these secret societies without your knowledge, and they are propagating it throughout your country and the countries of the world." - Our Lady, October 1, 1977

PRAYER AND FASTING
"Yes, My child, you see that I am the true Source of Life. For when you come to Me, you will nourish your soul. You will nourish your eternal being. You will learn, My child, in due time that the Bread of life will sustain you without earthly food. Man must return to fast and penance. Many demons can only be dispelled by much fast and penance, the greatest source being prayer.
     "You must keep a constant vigilance of prayer in your homes and the houses of your God. You must also recognize the faces of evil about you: those who parade themselves as angels of light but are truly ravenous wolves, agents of hell. They seek the destruction of souls." - Jesus, December 31, 1973 

CRUCIFIX
"Remember, keep your sacramentals constantly upon you: your brown Scapular, your St. Benedict medal, the Miraculous Medal, and also the medal of Our Lady of the Roses.
     "You must keep them upon you, with a crucifix. We demand a crucifix, because demons--many of the highest ones in the realms of hell cannot stand the sight of a crucifix. They will not approach your door. I give you this knowledge, My children, though it is not common knowledge upon earth, that the crucifix has great power against satan." - Jesus, June 18, 1987

CREATURES OF NIGHT
"I give you the greatest of hope in your world of darkness that the victory shall be with Heaven. Know that the greatest trials suffered are but a small forfeiture for the great glory of being victorious over the adversaries loosed upon your earth. They come as creatures of night, but they must possess the bodies of humans. Understand this in the supernatural, My children: no man, woman, or child of reasoning is free from the attacks of satan." - Jesus, September 7, 1976 

THEY ARE REAL
"Unless the parents teach their children of the existence of this other world unseen to the human eye, the children cannot then be protected from the attacks of these agents from hell. My child, they are real, they are living, and they have great power. They, too, possess names as do the high angels in the Kingdom of your God in Heaven." - Our Lady, March 15, 1978

POSSESS MANY
"My child, you will work with much haste. The time grows short. The enemy has entered into your government. Pray much for them. The demons possess many. They come in great multitudes, for they know the strength of prayer in your area. Should this be removed, your city, your state, and your country will go through a period of great suffering never seen before in this country." - Jesus, September 13, 1974 

WILL OF SATAN
"There are many agents of hell loosed upon earth now. They have entered into the House of God, and they possess the body of many men to do the will of satan. You must not abandon the sacramentals that I have given you through the Father for your protection and your salvation." - Our Lady, August 14, 1973 

ANY UNCLEAN SOUL
Be knowledgeable, My children, and understand that satan will not come to you as himself. He possesses the body of any unclean soul, be it man, woman, or child. I repeat to you now: all parents will be held responsible for the fall of their children's souls. Give them a good foundation, and when they are subjected to the storms of evil, they will not crack and crumble under the onslaught." - Our Lady, March 25, 1972 

MUST BE RETURNED
"Michael must be returned to My Son's House. The demons must be cast from My Son's House. They have taken possession of many to do the will of Lucifer." - Our Lady, February 10, 1973 

ANY SUSCEPTIBLE
"I repeat Myself, as in the past, My children. The demons have a form, but they do not use this form unless the Eternal Father gives you the knowledge and insight into the supernatural to observe them in action. They will use the body of a human being, one who has fallen out of grace and the light. Any man, woman, or child is susceptible to this possession." - Our Lady, August 21, 1975 

NOT BEYOND POSSESSION
"My heart is torn now at the full acceleration of the evil in your country, your cities, and your world. My Mother made it quite clear to you that mankind is not beyond possession by satan. The human body and the human souls now are being corrupted by evil man through the influence of satan, My children. You must learn to avoid the faces of evil that come to you. You must do all in your human power with the graces that will be given to you freely to cast off the inclination to evil." - Jesus, August 5, 1977 

SACRAMENTALS
"He has an army of ogres wandering now throughout your country and all of the countries of the world. They are in possession of great power, so wear your sacramentals and protect your children and your households. Learn the use every day of holy water throughout your household. Insist, even with obstructions, insist that your children always wear a sacramental. One day they will understand that they will repel the demons." - Our Lady, September 13, 1977

KING OF DARKNESS
"My children of God, have no fear. You will keep your sacramentals about you. You will keep your children's souls guarded, for none shall be attacked who are in the state of grace.
     "Be ye known now, it has been loosed on earth—satan; satan, the king of darkness, satan, the master of deceit. His time is short, but he is loose.
     "He entered into the body of a man in 1975, a man who gave himself to him in the practice of occult. He entered into the body of this man, as he cannot roam without the body. He will enter in, when he has finished his mission, into another body. And you will pray a constant vigilance of prayer that he is removed from your country." - St. Michael, August 13, 1977 

MURDERER,  LIAR
"Satan was a murderer and a liar from the beginning, and satan has been allowed upon your earth to separate the sheep from the goats. My children, he is the master of deceit. I must tell you as your Mother, that unless you remain in the state of grace, you cannot recognize him. He is a man of a thousand faces. He has great power: he can throw his voice, My children, into animals and even into the air. Unless you give your children a firm foundation in knowledge of their Faith, they will fall to his subtleties, My children." - Our Lady, September 7, 1977 

LOOSED  ON  EARTH
"Satan is loosed upon earth, but he knows that his time is growing short. Therefore, he will make a concerted effort to destroy those who are not in the state of grace, so that he can take them into hell. That is why, My children, you must always wear a medal, your armor about your neck. And the best armor of all is the Scapular, the Rosary, the St. Benedict medal, and also your newest armor: Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers. My child and My children, I tell you this because you cannot do without any of them. At this time, all armor is needed for the fight ahead." - Our Lady, May 17, 1986 

CONSORT OF SATAN
"Any man, woman, or child of the age of reasoning who has fallen from grace shall become a consort of satan." - Jesus, November 20, 1975