Just in time for Sunday:
The superior general of the Roman Catholic Church’s Jesuit order made a startling announcement Wednesday.
Father Artuor Sosa told the Italian magazine Tempi that the devil doesn’t exist.
Not as an actual person.
So reports the Catholic News Agency.
Arturo observed that Satan “exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because (he) is not a person, (he) is a way of acting evil.”
It sounds as if Arturo believes the devil is just, essentially, the idea of evil:
“He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life. Good and evil are in a permanent war in the human conscience and we have ways to point them out. We recognize God as good, fully good. Symbols are part of reality, and the devil exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality.”
As noted by The Daily Wire, the assertion isn’t in sync with other elements of the Church:
The Jesuit leader’s statement about the devil stands in stark contrast with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that Satan and his demons are “spiritual, non-corporeal beings” who are nonetheless “personal and immortal creatures” with an “intelligence and will.”
“Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing,'” the text reads.
Not once has the Catechism (or any sanctioned doctor of the Church, for that matter) referred to Satan as a symbol.
This isn’t Arturo’s first expressed doubts over the reality of a Prince of Darkness.
In 2017, he explained to El Mundo:
“We have formed symbolic figures such as the Devil to express evil.”
That statement brought heavy scrutiny, resulting in a spokesperson clarifying to the Catholic Herald:
“Like all Catholics, Father Sosa professes and teaches what the Church professes and teaches. He does not hold a set of beliefs separate from what is contained in the doctrine of the Catholic Church.”
It doesn’t sound like it.
And he’s not alone.
A 2011 poll revealed that 83% of American Catholics believe Lucifer is just a symbol. By contrast, 55% of Evangelicals confirmed belief in the devil’s literal existence.
Does all this surprise you? What are your thoughts on the Angel of Light?
Of course, Arturo and his likeminded 83% are wrong: As we’re constantly reminded, the devil is indeed a person. And his name is Donald Trump.
-ALEX
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