Not content to just have a private physician like most VIPs, Pope Benedict XVI’s got a chief exorcist, and that exorcist has continued the papal line in taking J.K. Rowling to task. Far beyond condemning crappy writing, Father Gabriele Amorth told Vatican Radio that Rowling’s Harry Potter is no less than “the signature of the king of darkness.”

Assumptions that Amorth was leaked a scene depicting Hermione smeared in the blood of Christian babies while double-teaming the Weasley twins were quickly dismissed when Amorth explained that his criticisms stem from Harry’s use of magic. Amorth said Rowling’s distinction between white and black magic was false because any magic “is always a turn to the devil.”

President of the International Association of Exorcists, Amorth also said he thought Hitler and Stalin had both been victims of demonic possession. Recently released Vatican documents show that Amorth isn’t alone in his thinking. Pope Pius XII attempted an unsuccessful long-distance exorcism of Hitler during the Second World War, a revelation not expected to put an end to accusations that the Catholic Church didn’t do enough to help Europe’s Jews.

» Scott Saxon