New film asks: Was Malachi Martin an exorcist or an exhibitionist?
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The documentary "Hostage to the Devil" lets viewers make their own judgments about whether the controversial former priest and best-selling author was a sinner or saint, an exorcist or showman, a prophet or sophist.
A new film has as its subject Malachi Martin, an Irishman who was, by
turns, Jesuit priest, professor at a Pontifical Institute in Rome,
layman, bestselling author, talk show guest, celebrity. From the 1970s,
he also claimed to be part of an underground network of unofficial
‘exorcists’. As charismatic as he would prove beguiling, as intellectual
as he appeared pious, Martin was, above all, controversial, and remains
so to this day, as this film testifies.
Hostage to the Devil (http://www.malachimartindoc.com)
is a 90-minute documentary film by Marty Stalker. It has been produced
with the co-operation of the Irish Film Board. This is fitting given
that the story it tells starts in the far south of that country. Malachi
Martin was born in County Kerry in 1921. Having graduated in philosophy
from the University of Dublin, he joined the Society of Jesus and was
ordained a priest in 1954. His further studies took him to Louvain in
Belgium, to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and to Oxford
University. Thereafter, he was sent to Rome as Professor at the
Pontifical Biblical Institute where he taught Aramaic, Hebrew and Sacred
Scripture. His future career looked bright, especially when he was made
Private Secretary to Cardinal Bea. It proved not to be so. The Second
Vatican Council was called in 1962. Some would maintain that alongside
the good intentions of those who convened it, other forces gathered too,
intent on distorting the reception of the outcome of the Council.
Certainly this is what Martin was to emphasize in what he said and wrote
during the decades that followed. He became an outspoken critic of the
Second Vatican Council in general and, in particular, of the direction
taken by the Jesuit Order following the Council. In 1965, he was
laicized. Martin maintains that this process was personally authorized
by Pope Paul VI, but that it only involved his dispensation from
two—poverty and obedience—of the three vows he had taken, with the vow
of chastity voluntarily retained for the rest of his life. One of the
priests featured in the film finds such a claim baffling: why the
dispensation from some but not all of the vows in question? From this
period on, however, there were many things in the life of Malachi Martin
that proved baffling.
Hostage to the Devil is a well-made documentary. It could have
easily been otherwise, given the material presented and explored. It
could, for example, have concentrated upon the more sensational aspects
of the life of its subject. Instead, we have a parade of witnesses who
thought him a spiritual genius, a holy man, a warrior in the battle
against the powers of darkness. There is also a prominent critic: Robert
Blair Kaiser. He was also an ex-Jesuit and, in some ways, just as
controversial, but, unlike Martin, he was one who fully supported the
direction the Jesuit order appeared to take from the 1960s onwards. He
knew Martin before, during, and then after the Council. He dismisses
Martin as a charlatan. Whether Martin was a sinner or saint, an exorcist
or showman, a prophet or sophist, as the film runs the audience is left
to make up its mind.
Martin is best known for his 1975 book, Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Living Americans. The book was not without controversy. It was published in the wake of the 1973 blockbuster film, which was setting box office records throughout 1974. William Peter Blatty, the author of the 1971 novel The Exorcist
and screenwriter of the film, lambasted Martin’s work as a cheap ‘rip
off’ that took advantage of the media wave Blatty’s work had started.
Nevertheless, Martin’s book became an instant bestseller, and propelled
him into the media spotlight. Then a resident in New York, Martin
appeared on television and radio and became the media’s expert on the
subject of exorcism. The difference between Martin and Blatty was a
simple one. Whereas Blatty wrote on the subject as an interested
outsider, Martin claimed to write from the inside as a practicing
exorcist.
As the film rightly points out, however, an exorcist must, in all cases,
be a priest appointed by the local bishop. The laity are not permitted
to perform exorcisms. Herein lies the central problem with Martin and
his claims. If he was no longer a priest, what was he doing performing
exorcisms? His supporters claim that Martin ‘never stopped being a
priest’. His detractors side with Blatty in seeing this whole dimension
of Martin’s life as an attention-grabbing stunt designed to sell books.
Hostage to the Devil makes good use of film footage of Martin
on national television and his speaking at more informal gatherings—and
of the audiotapes that Martin made from the 1970s onwards. What we
appear to see and hear in these recordings is a man of towering
intelligence who combines a way with words with a seemingly infectious
personal charm. In this documentary its makers have created a film where
the puzzle of Malachi Martin is left for the audience to ponder.
Ultimately, however, this is not a film about faith. It is, instead, a
look at the life of a curious figure from the late twentieth century—one
as much showman as churchman, and one who continues to divide opinion
and who will, no doubt, continue to do so for years to come.
[Hostage to the Devil is rated 12 for infrequent strong language, references to exorcisms and demonic possession.]