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.”

In lieu of comments, I am asking you to pray for those involved. Read it all–KSH.

If John Paul’s visit “brought down a wall, then Benedict’s visit builds a bridge across two sides of the Tiber that sometimes seem very far,” said Andrea Riccardi, a church historian and founder of the lay Community of Sant’Egidio, which helped orchestrate Sunday’s event. (The Vatican is on the other side of the Tiber from the synagogue in the former Jewish ghetto.)

Both the Vatican and Jews in Rome see Benedict’s visit, his third trip to a synagogue since becoming pope, as the continuation of an interfaith friendship and an effort to calm recent controversies.

“It’s true that there have been moments of tension and misunderstanding,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “But a specific meaning of this visit is to affirm from the Catholic side the essentiality and richness and importance of the common elements in the relationship.”

The visit evolved from a longstanding invitation by Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, for Benedict to call at the synagogue. “We have a very, very complicated history and a lot of problems to resolve,” Rabbi Di Segni said. “But it’s one thing to resolve them at a distance marked by chill and total hostility, and it’s another thing to have a willingness to listen respectfully.”

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Once, in that eon before bandwidth, my mother came to visit. I had a big apartment with lots of room close the to the Vatican.

Coming home one evening at suppertime, ready to dig into the kitchen and make something to eat for us, I arrived at the door and was greeted with wondrous fragrances.

The table was set and there was great golden brown bird and dishes with delights.

That it was Thanksgiving struck me like thunder.

The woman had, without any knowledge of Italian, gone to the neighborhood stores and the open market. She had collected everything useful she could find for the day. She managed to decipher the Italian oven, which doesn’t have degree settings even in centigrade. She made a Thanksgiving feast.

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A war of words between the Roman Catholic Church and Silvio Berlusconi’s clan heated up Saturday as reports said the row had led to the Vatican cancelling a meeting between its number two official and the Italian prime minister.

The reports said the Vatican had called off the talks scheduled for late Friday after the newspaper headed by Berlusconi’s brother Paolo attacked the boss of the Italian Catholic bishops’ daily, Avvenire, a persistent critic of the prime minister’s sexual peccadillos.

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Mr Berlusconi’s private life is, of course, private. But as President Clinton found, scandal does not become high office. To his critics, Mr Berlusconi retorts that he still commands high popularity ratings, is very much in control of his Government and will not be intimidated by what he calls opposition attempts to smear him. Many may also say that Italy is not America: that the puritan ethic framing standards in the US has never dominated Italian public life, and that few Italians are shocked by womanising. This is patronising nonsense. Italians understand just as well as Americans what is and what is not acceptable. And like Americans, they regard a cover-up as contemptible.

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Is it or isn’t it a Michelangelo? That is the question being pondered by art experts after the Italian state spent 3.3 million euros, or $4.2 million, last year to buy a small wooden crucifix attributed to that Renaissance genius.

Works by Michelangelo don’t come up for sale often, but the occasional drawing has nabbed as much as $20 million at auction. By comparison, the linden wood crucifix, which was sold by the Turin antiques dealer Giancarlo Gallino, is a bargain.

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Father Vincenzo Federico usually offers prayers when times are tough. As Italy lurches deeper into an economic crisis, the Roman Catholic priest is turning into a financial, rather than spiritual, adviser.

After he guaranteed a loan of 10,000 euros ($12,700) to a family of four earlier this year, his mornings are back-to-back appointments with churchgoers seeking similar aid.

“These days I feel like a banker,” Federico, 40, said by telephone from his parish in the medieval village of Padula in southern Italy. “In 15 years of priesthood, I never thought that this is what I would wind up doing.”

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