Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: some bishops are "linked to the Demon" (ovvero: la parola all'esperto)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7056689.ece
Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican
Richard Owen in Rome
Father Amorth claims that some bishops are "linked to the Demon"
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the 
Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief 
exorcist.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist 
for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic 
possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included 
power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe 
in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".
He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by 
Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including 
these latest stories of violence and paedophilia."
He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican 
"cover-up" over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then 
commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a 
Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. "They covered up everything 
immediately," he said. "Here one sees the rot".
A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay 
had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself 
after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay's relatives have 
challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual 
background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who was 
never identfied.
Father Amorth, who has just published Memoirs of an Exorcist, a series 
of interviews with the Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti, said that the 
attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been the work of 
the Devil, as had an incident last Christmas when a mentally disturbed 
woman threw herself at Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Midnight Mass, 
pulling him to the ground.
Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that 
Father Amorth had "gone well beyond the evidence" in claiming that Satan 
had infiltrated the Vatican corridors.
"Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and 
seek the glory of God," he said. Some Vatican officials were more pious 
than others, "but from there to affirm that some cardinals are members 
of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."
Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit, 
invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in 
the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different 
languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he 
makes fun of me."
He said it sometimes took six or seven of his assistants to to hold down 
a possessed person. Those possessed often yelled and screamed and spat 
out nails or pieces of glass, which he kept in a bag. "Anything can come 
out of their mouths – finger-length pieces of iron, but also rose petals."
He said that hoped every diocese would eventually have a resident 
exorcist. Under Church Canon Law any priest can perform exorcisms, but 
in practice they are carried out by a chosen few trained in the rites.
Father Amorth was ordained in 1954 and became an official exorcist in 
1986. In the past he has suggested that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin 
were possessed by the Devil. He was among Vatican officials who warned 
that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels made a "false distinction 
between black and white magic".
He approves, however, of the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although 
"exaggerated" offered a "substantially exact" picture of possession.
In 2001 he objected to the introduction of a new version of the exorcism 
rite, complaining that it dropped centuries-old prayers and was "a blunt 
sword" about which exorcists themselves had not been consulted. The 
Vatican said later that he and other exorcists could continue to use the 
old ritual.

 Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth
'un di bischerate...l'esperto è lui:
http://www.vernacoliere.com/fumetti/donzauker.php