CHILD sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church are evidence of the Devil's presence in the Vatican, the Pope's chief exorcist has said in an interview.
• Father Gabriel Amorth has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms. Picture: Getty Images
Father Gabriel Amorth, 84, who has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in a career spanning 50 years, said Pope Benedict "fully agreed" with him in "casting out evil".
During the past few months, the Catholic Church has been shaken by a series of sex scandals in Ireland, Holland and, most recently, Germany, where even the Pope's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, has admitted hitting choir boys.
In an interview with La Repubblica newspaper in Italy, Fr Amorth said: "His Holiness fully believes in casting out evil.
"The Devil lives in the Vatican. He has won over the confidences of people, but naturally it's difficult to find proof. But the consequences are visible.
"We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons. Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan's smoke in the holy rooms (of the Vatican]."
The priest gave his interview as part of a book launch by an Italian religious affairs journalist, Marco Tosatti, who has written Memoirs of an Exorcist.
Fr Amorth said: "The Devil is invisible – he is a pure spirit. But in the people he possesses he can be seen through pain and blasphemies, but he can also remain hidden.
"Sometimes he makes fun of me, but I have to say I enjoy my work."
He said he had "six or seven assistants" to help him hold down possessed people when he carried out exorcism and that he kept "nails and glass that they spit out in a little bag". He went on: "From the mouths of the possessed people, all sorts of things come out – bits of metal as long as a finger, rose petals.
"I have to have help holding them down and wiping up the saliva, but seeing these people vomit doesn't upset me."
Fr Amorth also said the attempt on the life of the late Pope John Paul II in May 1981 and the recent attack on Pope Benedict XVI during Christmas Eve Mass last year had been the work of the Devil.
This is not the first time Fr Amorth has hit the headlines. In 2006, he gave an interview to Vatican Radio in which he claimed Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and the Soviet strongman Josef Stalin had both been possessed.
According to secret Vatican documents recently released, wartime Pope Pius XII attempted a "long distance" exorcism of Hitler that failed to have any effect.
In the past, Fr Amorth has also spoken out against Harry Potter, claiming that reading the novels by JK Rowling opened children's minds to dabbling with the occult and black magic.
The Italian priest, who was ordained in 1954 and is president of the International Association of Exorcists, said of the books: "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the Devil."
He claimed the books contained innumerable positive references to magic, "the satanic art", and that the books attempted to create a false distinction between black and white magic, when the distinction "does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the Devil".
PRIESTLY CELIBACY BLAMED
THE leader of Austria's Roman Catholics has said the sex abuse cases rocking the Church are due to "priestly celibacy" and a "change of vision" is needed.
Archbishop Christoph Schoenborn made his remarks in a local religious magazine but they were quickly seized upon.
Pope Benedict has described abuse of children by priests as a "heinous crime" and has vowed to tackle the problem urgently and decisively but Archbishop Schoenborn's comments on celibacy are in striking contrast to church teaching.
Archbishop Schoenborn said: "The causes of sex abuse by priests? These need to be found in priest training, as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution of 1968.
"It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole, a change of vision."
