 A recent announcement that appeared in a variety of media outlets worldwide on December 29, 2007 hailed the formation of adjuristine-exorcism squads by Pope Benedict XVI.The teams were reportedly being dispatched to "tackle the rise of Satanism" according to the UK newspaper the Daily Mail.The report, first made public by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican "exorcist-in-chief," to the online Catholic news service Petrus, was almost immediately dismissed by Vatican officials but the publication of the reports represented an unusual instance where the existence of adjurists was acknowledged.