3/10/10

Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican -Times Online

 "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.  ...more