Issuing a stark warning during a televised interview, Pope Francis said Satan is “more intelligent than us” and any interaction with the Prince of Darkness “ends badly”. 

Speaking to Catholic broadcaster TV2000, the Pontiff said: “I’m convinced that one must never converse with Satan - if you do that, you'll be lost.

“He's more intelligent than us, and he'll turn you upside down, he'll make your head spin.

“He always pretends to be polite - he does it with priests, with bishops. That's how he enters your mind. 

“But it ends badly if you don't realise what is happening in time. We should tell him, ‘go away’.

“He is evil, he’s not like mist. He’s not a diffuse thing, he is a person.”

The 80-year-old pontiff regularly references the Devil in his sermons and to his 40 million followers on Twitter.

He uses a variety of terms to refer to Satan, including the Evil One, the Seducer, Beelzebub and the Great Dragon.

His latest warning comes just days after he called for a change in the wording of the Lord’s prayer because it implied God induces temptation rather than the Devil.

The much-recited prayer is known by the majority of the world’s 2.2billion Christians, and according to the New Testament, was the way Jesus taught his followers to pray.

Last week Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, argued part of the prayer had been mistranslated. 

He said the words “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” were incorrect.

Speaking to Italian broadcasters, he said: “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.

“The French have modified the prayer to ‘do not let me fall into temptation’, because it is me who falls, not the Lord who tempts me to then see how I fall.”

Argentinian-born Pope Francis has taken a different approach to his predecessors by voicing his opinion and offering wisdom on international affairs.

Last week he urged President Donald Trump not to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, arguing it was essential to “recognise the rights of all people” in the Holy Land in order continue peace talks. 

Following the controversial announcement, the Pope said: “I cannot keep quiet about my deep worry about the situation that has been created in the last few days.”

And last month it emerged the Vatican was tying to de-escalate the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula. 

A high-ranking cardinal revealed the Pope wanted to speak directly to dictator Kim Jong-un in an attempt to avert a nuclear war.

Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, head of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said: “The dicastery is already in communication with the Korean episcopal conference to see how we may have contact also with the regime on the other side.

“We are exploring the possibilities of speaking to them directly. 

“We cannot say right now exactly when this contact will happen.”