Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1541835
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 DECEMBER 2025 INTERVIEW The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday.com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY How has this work changed your personal understanding of faith? Has confronting evil strengthened or challenged your beliefs? I wouldn't say it challenged my beliefs. I would say that in the long run it has strengthened my faith because when you pray with people who may be victims of the occult or for some reason oppressed by an evil spirit or in those rare cases possessed by an evil spirit or spirits, you experience the presence and the power of evil, but you also experience the greater power of God, the power of prayer, the power of faith, the power of the sacraments… It has given me a greater sense of discernment, understanding where evil is truly present and where the issue may be mental illness or very human everyday problems; challenges that we all face. Strangely enough it has also strengthened my sense of doubt. I doubt, I hope at least, in a very positive sense, because doubting gives you the opening to discern and understand what a person truly needs. Why do people turn to the occult or Satanism? What are they searching for? In my experience, the majority of people who turn to the occult… do so because of human problems, uncertainty in life, relationship problems, financial problems. Sometimes persons are so hard-pressed, they do not know where to go, and very unwisely, but with no malice… consult fortune tellers or maybe use a Ouija board. Many times, it's trying to get control over your life. Obviously, in my opinion, it's the wrong person you are consulting, because I believe it's opening a door to the evil one... And even with people who went into Satanism… the basic reasons why they turned to Satanism were very human. People who have been bullied, people who try and get back at their parents... People who want to get back at God because they're very angry over their negative life experiences… Very rarely have I encountered people who have gone into Satanism for the fun of it or for curiosity. Have you spoken to the devil? What did he say? If you spoke to the devil, have you spoken to Jesus? As an exorcist, there are moments when the evil spirit would use the vocal cords of the person to speak. Now, obviously, we are prohibited from creating a dialogue with an evil spirit or else we'll fall into spiritism, which is also occult. But sometimes the devil, the evil spirit, can be loquacious... The only thing we are permitted to ask, according to the old rite of exorcism, is the name, how the evil spirit entered, and the time and sign of when it will leave. I've never permitted myself to dialogue with evil. I don't give it importance. In each exorcism, the centre is Christ. I speak to Jesus every day, every moment. He is my Lord… He doesn't always answer, believe me. He can be quite quiet, but he does speak through his word and through circumstances in life… Do demons and spirits go by a name? Generally speaking, yes… sometimes they do give the biblical names, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, mentioned in the Old Testament. Sometimes they would give the name of the seven capital sins such as spirit of lust… When they do give their real names, you know that you're at the end of the long process of deliverance. How does someone become pos- sessed? If you're into Satanism or the occult, you're opening a door to an evil spirit. If not possessed, you are oppressed, which is something minor, and yet you get the same symptoms more or less. So, if you dabble in the occult, if you are into Satanism, you've obviously made a pact with Satan… you have opened your heart, you have opened your existence to the presence of an evil spirit. That's the classical example. But many times, in these past 30 years, I've faced more people who have been oppressed or possessed and who have never dabbled in the occult. There would be reasons— sometimes a person is the victim of a spell or has been cursed. Or maybe there might be something intergenerational, something coming from parents or grandparents or great-grandparents. If a family has dabbled in the occult, unfortunately sometimes it passes from generation to generation, believe it or not… How do possessed people act? Is it like in the movies? Do heads spin around and people levitate? I would not exclude that sometimes you get these diabolic theatrics, whether it's levitation or heads turning around, but they are very rare… I've seen it, but very rarely. And I never give it importance because the real symptoms of possession are not the theatrics [but] inner symptoms, of suffering, sometimes physical sickness, a great heaviness which makes you hate life, sometimes even suicidal thoughts… Could it be that possession is a psychiatric condition you do not understand? I wish it was… this is my great desire, that all this stuff is all in the mind. But I've learned that it's not all in the mind. I've seen people coming after years of treatment, which did them well to a certain extent, but not enough. Because the source was never treated. In some rare cases, there would be a negative source which would need deliverance prayer… There are moments where you need only medication or psychotherapy, because the illness is mental. There are cases where you would need both together. There are cases where you would need only deliverance. I've never entered into the medical field… that's why in many cases, I always ask people for an analysis from a professional, whether it's a psychiatrist or a psychologist. If a psychiatrist is open to this reality, it's all the much better but even if they are not, I have no problem. But I need the professional analysis because as time goes by, I would understand better the symptoms exhibiting during an exorcism, which are common to mental illness… I've learned to wait and see and try to understand the source [of the difficulty]. If the source is only psychiatric… this is not my job. I would still pray with people, encourage them to see a psychiatrist, a psychotherapist or a psychologist... but when the source, in my opinion, is negative on a spiritual level, then I would proceed also with deliverance prayer while still encouraging them to keep taking their medication. The presence of an evil spirit creates chaos on different levels in one's personality. So, you would probably also need psychiatric treatment… Why is it that footage of pos- sessions is never made public? Surely the 'devil' would want people to know he exists? The Catholic Church prohibits public footage... We also don't pray with people in public. You have to respect the person involved. It's a public prayer because the priest is doing it in the name of the church, but not public where there are lots of people. You'd probably have some of your helpers, just in case people get a bit violent. But we avoid this. This is not a show… I don't need curious people. I need people who pray. Could this be an excuse the church uses to conceal the truth that none of this may be real? I don't think so. Absolutely not… I've had psychiatrists coming with me, but to discern a case… The church has nothing to hide. I wish this was all in the mind. It would make me a free man. Unfortunately, it's not… Persons will always have their issues. And if there are spiritual issues, I think the church needs a healing ministry to face them. The church might be a bit afraid, you know, because I've had many colleagues of mine, who are always joking with me... I've always been the butt of jokes because of my ministry. I don't mind that, as long as I help people…