Pope's Exorcist Blames Devil for Child Abuse by Catholic Priests

So here we are in the very backward 21st century with, among other widespread supernatural delusions, a claim that child sex abuse scandals in the catholic church in Europe are the devil's work.

The Pope's chief exorcist - if you can believe such a post was not abolished in the middle ages - says ecclesiastical sex abuse of children shows 'the devil' is at work in the Vatican in Rome.

Father Gabriel Amorth, aged 84, has performed more than 70,000 'exorcisms' in his 24-year career. He says the German Pope, Benedict, "fully agreed" with his attempts to "cast out evil".

The catholic church was shaken in early 2010 by sex scandals in Ireland, Holland, Italy and Germany. Even the pope's brother, Georg Ratzinger, admitted hitting catholic choir boys.

Interviewed by La Repubblica newspaper, Father Amorth said the pope "fully believes in casting out evil. The devil lives in the Vatican. He has won over the confidences of people - naturally it's difficult to find proof but the consequences are visible. We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ and 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."

Father Amorth was interviewed for a book launch, Memoirs of an Exorcist, written by Italian religious affairs journalist, Marco Tosatti. Amorth was the inspiration for the priest in hit film The Exorcist.

"The devil is invisible" he said. "He is a pure spirit. But in the people he possesses he can be seen through pain and blasphemies. He can also remain hidden. Sometimes he makes fun of me but I have to say I enjoy my work." He added that he uses "six or seven assistants" who help him hold down people he claims are possessed by demons. He keeps ''nails and glass that they spit out in a little bag" he says. "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."

Father Amorth also claims that the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in May 1981 and the recent attack on Pope Benedict XVI during Christmas Eve Mass last year were the devil's work.

It was the devil too, he says, who arranged a Vatican "cover-up" in 1998 after the unexplained deaths of Pontifical Swiss Guard commander Alois Estermann, his wife and fellow Swiss Guard Corporal Cedric Tornay. All three were shot dead. "They covered up everything immediately" said Father Amorth "and here one sees the rot." The Vatican's line was that Tornay shot Estermann and his wife and then killed himself but this version of events has been hotly disputed by Tornay's family. And it does seem that homosexuality, Opus Dei and corruption played unexplained parts in the triple tragdey.

Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull is an exorcist colleague of Amorth's. He protests that Amorth's views, seeing devils all around, are extreme:

"Cardinals might be better or worse" he says "but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God. To affirm that some cardinals are members of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."

Amorth, however, attributes almost all wrongdoing to 'the devil'. In 2006, he told Vatican Radio that Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were both possessed. Pope Pius XII had apparently attempted a "long distance" exorcism of Hitler's 'demons' during the war, which - manifestly - failed.

Amorth has also condemned the British childrens' books featuring young wizard Harry Potter, claiming that the fiction encourages children to dabble in black magic. Amorth, ordained in 1954, is president of the International Association of Exorcists. He has condemned author JK Rowling's books saying : "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of darkness, the devil."

Amorth would do better to confront the real scandal of child sex abuse in the catholic church and stop pretending 'demons' are filling mens' hearts with evil and their mouths with nails and petals. He would do better too to investigate the cover up which said that Tornay killed his colleague and his wife. Behind these acts are ordinary men with extraordinary motives. Catholicism may prefer a view through 'devil specs' but justice is better served by clarity and logic.