Devil made ‘em do it: In another shining example of what’s wrong with the Catholic church (besides the whole transubstantiation business), the pope’s head exorcist has come and declared that Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were both possessed by Satan. I am not making this up — it was published in the Daily Mail.

Father Gabriele Amorth who is Pope Benedict XVI’s ‘caster out of demons’ made his comments during an interview with Vatican Radio.

‘I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed.’
– Father Amorth

Father Amorth said: “Of course the Devil exists and he can not only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations.

“I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed. All you have to do is think about what Hitler – and Stalin did. Almost certainly they were possessed by the Devil.

“You can tell by their behaviour and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That’s why we need to defend society from demons.”

Then-pontiff Pius XII tried to perform a long-distance excorcism on Hitler during World War II, according to secret Vatican documents. But Amorth said that rarely works. He hinted that you have to be within pea soup spitting distance.

Amorth has spoken out against the Harry Potter books as promoting satanism:

Father Amorth, who is president of the International Association of Exorcists, said of the JK Rowling books:”Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.”

He said that Rowling’s books contain innumerable positive references to magic, “the satanic art” and added the books attempt to make a false distinction between black and white magic, when in fact, the distinction “does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil.”

For the record, Father Amorth has performed more than 30,000 exorcisms, and he told the interviewer — no joke — his favorite film is “The Exorcist.”