Lessons at the prestigious Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum will include the history of Satanism and its context in the Bible. Practical lessons in psychology and the law will also be featured.

Concern is high in Italy about the influence of Satanic cults - especially among the young and impressionable.

There will also be seminars at the Athenaeum, or Upra as it is known, on the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral work involved in being an exorcist.

Father Giulio Savoldi has been Milan's official exorcist for more than 20 years. He did not have the benefit of training but is in no doubt about what he would include in any course for candidates to take on the task of fighting evil in the raw - and the qualities needed of any would-be exorcist.