Pope Francis presides over a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on July 23, 2023, for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. / Pablo Esparza/EWTN
Rome Newsroom, Jul 23, 2023 / 08:30 am (CNA).
A common struggle for elderly Mass-goers is being able to hear in church. It seems, then, that the unveiling of a new sound system in St. Peter’s Basilica couldn’t have had better timing. It was inaugurated on July 23, after 10 months of work, just in time for the papal Mass for the third World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.
Some 80 new speakers and a state-of-the-art digital system replaced the previous sound system, installed nearly 25 years ago in the lead-up to the year 2000 jubilee.
The new system allows for “precise” and “perfect” sound, cutting down on the echo and reverberation that is typical of such a large space, according to the lead architect, Carlo Carbone.
With the new system, the sound seems to come from the altar, giving the congregation a more “natural” experience during the liturgies, he said. Voices and singing are heard more precisely as the sound distribution has been improved. “Before this renovation, there was an unnatural volume,” Carbone said. “The sound was overwhelming, as if coming from everywhere.”
The Dicastery for Communication’s Technology Department worked with the technical offices of the Fabbrica di San Pietro and Bose Professional to bring about the upgrade.
According to Vatican News, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the project was “a great team effort, a beautiful synergy,” with the collaboration of experts from various fields.
Much of the work was done in the evening hours after the basilica was closed to the public. And it was no small effort. The sub-floor wiring that had accumulated over the last 70 years was replaced with 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) of fibers. The sound system now allows for some 20 distinct areas that can be engaged simultaneously or separately, depending on the celebration. It also seamlessly interfaces with the radio and television broadcasting systems.
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The trailer of the upcoming Russell Crowe movie “The Pope’s Exorcist” indicates that the film might not do justice to the Italian exorcist Father Gabriel Amorth or the rite of exorcism as practiced in the Catholic Church, according to an exorcist organization Amorth himself helped to found.
The International Association of Exorcists on March 7 voiced concern that the film seems to fall under the category of “splatter cinema,” which it calls a “sub-genre of horror.”
The Vatican, the statement said, is filmed with a high-contrast “chiaroscuro” effect seen in film noir.
This gives the film a “‘Da Vinci Code’ effect to instill in the public the usual doubt: Who is the real enemy? The devil or ecclesiastical ‘power’?” the exorcists’ association said.
While special effects are “inevitable” in every film about demonic possession, “everything is exaggerated, with striking physical and verbal manifestations, typical of horror films,” the group said.
“This way of narrating Don Amorth’s experience as an exorcist, in addition to being contrary to historical reality, distorts and falsifies what is truly lived and experienced during the exorcism of truly possessed people,” said the association, which claims more than 800 exorcist members and more than 120 auxiliary members worldwide.
“In addition, it is offensive with regard to the state of suffering in which those who are victims of an extraordinary action of the devil find themselves,” the group’s statement added. The statement responded to the release of the movie trailer and promised a more in-depth response to the film’s April 14 theatrical release.
Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of Rome, speaks to CNA on May 22, 2013. Steven Driscoll/CNA
Amorth, who died at age 91 in 2016, said he performed an estimated 100,000 exorcisms during his life. He was perhaps the world’s best-known exorcist and the author of many books, including “An Exorcist Tells His Story,” reportedly an inspiration for the upcoming movie.
Several of Amorth’s books are carried by the U.S. publisher Sophia Institute Press. The publisher’s newly released book “The Pope’s Exorcist: 101 Questions About Fr. Gabriele Amorth” is an interview in which the priest addresses many topics ranging from prayer to pop music.
Michael Lichens, editor and spokesperson at Sophia Institute Press, voiced some agreement with the exorcist group.
“The International Association of Exorcists is right to be concerned and I’m thankful for their words,” Lichens told CNA. “My hope is that audiences will remember that Father Amorth is a real person with a great legacy and perhaps a few moviegoers will look up an interview or pick up his books.”
“This was a man who included St. Padre Pio and Blessed Giacomo Alberione as mentors, as well as Servant of God Candido Amantini, who was his teacher for the ministry of exorcism,” he said. “Father Amorth fought as a partisan as a young man and grew to fight greater evil as an exorcist. His life is an inspiration and I know that his work and words will still reach many.”
Amorth was born in Modena, Italy, on May 1, 1925. In wartime Italy, he was a soldier with the underground anti-fascist partisans. He was ordained a priest in 1951. He did not become an exorcist until 1986, when Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, named him the diocesan exorcist.
The priest was frequently in the news for his comments on the subject of demonic forces. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph in 2000, he said: “I speak with the devil every day. I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in, day out, for 14 years.”
The movie “The Pope’s Exorcist” claims to be “inspired by the actual files of the Vatican’s chief exorcist.” The Sony Pictures movie stars the New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe as Amorth. Crowe’s character wears a gray beard and speaks English with a noticeable accent.
“The majority of cases do not require an exorcism,” the Amorth character says in the movie’s first trailer. A cardinal explains that Crowe’s character recommends 98% of people who seek an exorcism to doctors and psychiatrists instead.
“The other 2%… I call it… evil,” Crowe adds.
The plot appears to concern Amorth’s encounter with a particular demon. Crowe’s character suggests the Church “has fought this demon before” but covered it up.
“We need to find out why,” he says.
The trailer shows short dramatic scenes of exorcism, including a confrontation between Amorth and a girl apparently suffering demonic possession.
The International Association of Exorcists said such a representation makes exorcism become “a spectacle aimed at inspiring strong and unhealthy emotions, thanks to a gloomy scenography, with sound effects such as to inspire only anxiety, restlessness, and fear in the viewer.”
“The end result is to instill the conviction that exorcism is an abnormal, monstrous, and frightening phenomenon, whose only protagonist is the devil, whose violent reactions can be faced with great difficulty,” said the exorcist group. “This is the exact opposite of what occurs in the context of exorcism celebrated in the Catholic Church in obedience to the directives imparted by it.”
CNA sought comment from Sony Pictures and “The Pope’s Exorcist” executive producer Father Edward Siebert, SJ, but did not receive a response by publication.
Amorth co-founded the International Association of Exorcists with Father René Laurentin in 1994. In 2014 the Catholic Church recognized the group as a Private Association of the Faithful.
The association trains exorcists and promotes their incorporation into local communities and normal pastoral care. It also aims to promote “correct knowledge” about exorcism ministry and collaboration with medical and psychiatric experts who have competence in spirituality.
Exorcism is considered a sacramental, not a sacrament, of the Church. It is a liturgical rite that only a priest can perform.
Hollywood made the topic a focus most famously in the 1973 movie “The Exorcist,” based on the novel by William Peter Blatty.
“Most movies about Catholicism and spiritual warfare sensationalize,” Lichens of Sophia Institute Press told CNA. “Sensationalism and terror sell tickets. As a fan of horror movies, I can understand and even appreciate that. As a Catholic who has studied Father Amorth, though, I think such sensationalism distorts the important work of exorcism.”
“On the other hand, ‘The Exorcist’ made the wider public more curious about this overlooked ministry. That is a good thing that came out, despite other reservations and concerns,” he continued. “Still, I would love it if a screenwriter and director spoke to exorcists and tried to show the often-quotidian parts of the ministry.”
An unhealthy curiosity can be a problem, Lichens said.
“When I work as a spokesperson for Amorth’s books, I am always concerned about inspiring curiosity about the demonic,” he told CNA. “As Christians, we know we have nothing to fear from the demonic but curiosity might lead some to want to seek out the supernatural or the demonic. Father Amorth has dozens of stories of people who found themselves afflicted after party game seances.”
Lichens encouraged those who are curious to read more of Amorth’s writings, some of which are excerpted on the Catholic Exchange website. Sophia Institute Press has published “Diary of an American Exorcist” by Monsignor Stephen Rosetti and “The Exorcism Files” by the American lay Catholic Adam Blai.
“First and foremost, Father Amorth was involved in a healing ministry,” Lichens said. “Like other exorcists, his work often involved doctors in physical and mental health because the goal is to bring healing and hope to the potentially afflicted.”
“Those of us who read Amorth might have been excited to read firsthand accounts of spiritual warfare, but readers quickly see a man whose heart was always full of love for those who sought his help,” he added.
The International Association of Exorcists, for its part, praised the 2016 documentary “Deliver Us,” saying this shows “what exorcism really is in the Catholic Church and “the authentic traits of a Catholic exorcist.” It shows exorcism as “a most joyful event,” in their view, because through experiencing “the presence and action of Christ the Lord and of the Communion of the Saints,” those who are “tormented by the extraordinary action of the devil gradually find liberation and peace.”
This piece reminds me of the Vatican II decree on the media of social communication, Inter Mirifica. Even as it is now dated in many technical details, its principles still need to be received, studied and implemented at most on the parish level. The basic understanding of the dynamics of communication to consist in the sender conveying the message in a manner that can be heard or perceived by the receiver clearly has a lot to say today to many pastoral leadership teams in parishes about the need of a sound system that is in top notch condition. In what may appear to be simply a technological matter such as the church sound system, it is actually vital to the building up and nurturing of the parish community. A communication malfunction due to a bad church sound system can consequently affect or even break the communion of the parish family.
We read: “The new system allows for ‘precise’ and ‘perfect’ sound, cutting down on the echo and reverberation that is typical of such a large space, according to the lead architect, Carlo Carbone.” “Echo and reverberation?” The wonders of modern technology, but then (with T.S. Eliot), “falls the shadow” or maybe the echo…
Now hear this….
“When the early Christians adopted the form of the Roman basilica meeting hall for use as a church, they adjusted themselves to buildings with large volumes, hard stone surfaces, and [acoustically] long reverberation times [like the tubes of a pipe organ]. It was not possible simply to verbally preach the good news in such halls, for the words resounded up to six and eight seconds after being uttered, and the multiple overlays were unintelligible.
“The solution was to chant the liturgy, and by a process of trial and error no doubt, a basic acoustical principle was discovered. [Some science here about harmonic intervals, then…] Hence, theoretically, if the priest chanted the liturgy using harmonic intervals around [pitch note] ‘A’ the air in the vast volume of such basilicas would soon vibrate on its inherent upper resonant frequencies, and the air vibrating in the building would carry the message to the worshippers. Thus, the plainsong or Gregorian chant, was born” (Leland M. Roth, “Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning,” 2007).
So, yes to the sound-system upgrade, but also, too bad about the passing of Gregorian chant!
Replaced by modern technology, the same as much else of “backward” Catholic living memory–not by 80 speakers, but by the technology of countless word processors at the service of ersatz, focus-group theology and all manner of textual abuse. As with Gutenberg’s tiny moveable type, so too, now even tiny children are trafficked and interchangeable with techy sex toys. Meaning that the real “seamless garment” extends from contraception, to abortion, to homosexual license, to gender theory, to sex trafficking, and even to transformer-toy transgenderism.
So, let’s crowd into Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica.
We understand that Latin is still permitted at one altar buried in the crypt. And, that it was only the Lateran that was handed over to an Anglican service—said to be due to a “communication problem” not fixable with new speakers.
Sound. This writer is beginning to feel like the British captain Durrance in Four Feathers, who sighted the approaching Dervish enemy, becomes blinded by the sun, awakes back at camp yelling ‘Alarm! Alarm!
Yes. Upgrade the sound system at St Peter’s. Assuage our angst. Pacify the unwitting sheep.
Sound. This writer is beginning to feel like the British captain Durance, who sighted the approaching Dervish enemy, becomes blinded by the sun, awakes back at camp yelling ‘Alarm! Alarm!
Yes. Upgrade the sound system at St Peter’s. Assuage our angst. Pacify the unwitting sheep.
All roads lead to Rome. His Eminence Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and his experts are lending a meaningful service to devotees and pilgrims to the Eternal City.
This piece reminds me of the Vatican II decree on the media of social communication, Inter Mirifica. Even as it is now dated in many technical details, its principles still need to be received, studied and implemented at most on the parish level. The basic understanding of the dynamics of communication to consist in the sender conveying the message in a manner that can be heard or perceived by the receiver clearly has a lot to say today to many pastoral leadership teams in parishes about the need of a sound system that is in top notch condition. In what may appear to be simply a technological matter such as the church sound system, it is actually vital to the building up and nurturing of the parish community. A communication malfunction due to a bad church sound system can consequently affect or even break the communion of the parish family.
We read: “The new system allows for ‘precise’ and ‘perfect’ sound, cutting down on the echo and reverberation that is typical of such a large space, according to the lead architect, Carlo Carbone.” “Echo and reverberation?” The wonders of modern technology, but then (with T.S. Eliot), “falls the shadow” or maybe the echo…
Now hear this….
“When the early Christians adopted the form of the Roman basilica meeting hall for use as a church, they adjusted themselves to buildings with large volumes, hard stone surfaces, and [acoustically] long reverberation times [like the tubes of a pipe organ]. It was not possible simply to verbally preach the good news in such halls, for the words resounded up to six and eight seconds after being uttered, and the multiple overlays were unintelligible.
“The solution was to chant the liturgy, and by a process of trial and error no doubt, a basic acoustical principle was discovered. [Some science here about harmonic intervals, then…] Hence, theoretically, if the priest chanted the liturgy using harmonic intervals around [pitch note] ‘A’ the air in the vast volume of such basilicas would soon vibrate on its inherent upper resonant frequencies, and the air vibrating in the building would carry the message to the worshippers. Thus, the plainsong or Gregorian chant, was born” (Leland M. Roth, “Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning,” 2007).
So, yes to the sound-system upgrade, but also, too bad about the passing of Gregorian chant!
Replaced by modern technology, the same as much else of “backward” Catholic living memory–not by 80 speakers, but by the technology of countless word processors at the service of ersatz, focus-group theology and all manner of textual abuse. As with Gutenberg’s tiny moveable type, so too, now even tiny children are trafficked and interchangeable with techy sex toys. Meaning that the real “seamless garment” extends from contraception, to abortion, to homosexual license, to gender theory, to sex trafficking, and even to transformer-toy transgenderism.
So, let’s crowd into Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica.
We understand that Latin is still permitted at one altar buried in the crypt. And, that it was only the Lateran that was handed over to an Anglican service—said to be due to a “communication problem” not fixable with new speakers.
Sound. This writer is beginning to feel like the British captain Durrance in Four Feathers, who sighted the approaching Dervish enemy, becomes blinded by the sun, awakes back at camp yelling ‘Alarm! Alarm!
Yes. Upgrade the sound system at St Peter’s. Assuage our angst. Pacify the unwitting sheep.
Sound. This writer is beginning to feel like the British captain Durance, who sighted the approaching Dervish enemy, becomes blinded by the sun, awakes back at camp yelling ‘Alarm! Alarm!
Yes. Upgrade the sound system at St Peter’s. Assuage our angst. Pacify the unwitting sheep.
All roads lead to Rome. His Eminence Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and his experts are lending a meaningful service to devotees and pilgrims to the Eternal City.