PTI

London, Dec 29: Remember the 1974 horror film 'The Exorcist' based on real events? Well, 33 years on, it seems to have created some impact on the Vatican which has now vowed to tackle the "evil".

According to Vatican's Exorcist-in-Chief Father Gabriele Amorth, the Roman Catholic Church will train hundreds of priests as exorcists to "fight the Devil head-on", The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

As per plans, each bishop will have a group of priests in his diocese who would be specially trained in exorcism and on hand to take action against "extreme Godlessness".

"Thanks to God that we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on. Now bishops are to be obliged to have a number of established exorcists for their diocese. Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a proper, trained exorcist," he said.

"Thankfully, Pope Benedict XVI believes in the existence and danger of evil, from the time he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," Fr Amorth was quoted as saying.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the oldest Vatican department, deals with promoting and safeguarding Roman Catholic beliefs.

It was headed by the Pope when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, from 1982 until his election as Pope in 2005.

Fr Amorth said that during his time at the department the Pope had warned humanity of the risks it faces from the Devil. "I remember a meeting we exorcists had with the Holy Father last year, in which he implored us to follow our mission as exorcists."