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Christian Faith and Demonology

LivingWordUnity

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Here is the Catholic Church teaching that Satan and the demons are real:

Vatican Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

VII "BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL"

2850 The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus' prayer: "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one." It touches each of us personally, but it is always "we" who pray, in communion with the whole Church, for the deliverance of the whole human family. The Lord's Prayer continually opens us to the range of God's economy of salvation. Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned into solidarity in the Body of Christ, the "communion of saints."

2851 In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.

2852
"A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world." Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death." Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one."

The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God does not dread the devil. "If God is for us, who is against us?"
2853 Victory over the "prince of this world" was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out." "He pursued the woman" but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring." Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One.

2854 When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."​

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:


"Some angels turned against God and were driven from his presence. Led by Satan and followers, called devils, they tempt us to evil." — USCCB, United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, p. 62 (Doctrinal Statement)
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pdudgeon

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Excellent! and well worth remembering in these days...
especially when contemplating opening the business of civic organizations to the aforementioned powers.

question of the day: do we seriously want to make our civic meetings into the devil's playground?
 
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Armoured

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Do we really think Satanists actually have anything to do with "The Demonic"?

As sid in the other thread, if you want Christian prayers before government meetings, you need to accept that other people will want their prayers too. If you don't want other people's prayers, that's fine, but you don't get to have Christian ones either.

Pretty simple. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
 
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pdudgeon

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well yes, Satanists who worship satan would naturally come under the power and influence of the demonic, whether they recognize that or not.

That's why we pray to be delivered from satan's power, and also from all of his demons who come against us.
 
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Armoured

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well yes, Satanists who worship satan would naturally come under the power and influence of the demonic, whether they recognize that or not.
My understanding is that most Satanists are actually atheists, but anyhoo.
That's why we pray to be delivered from satan's power, and also from all of his demons who come against us.
And that's fine. Doesn't mean you get to exclude Satanists from the civil sphere.
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Here is something that St. Paul said about it:

2 Thessalonians 2

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, 12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.15 So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.​
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Here's something that (then) Cardinal Ratzinger said about it:

"The more one understands the holiness of God, the more one understands the opposite of what is holy, namely, the deceptive masks of the devil. Jesus Christ himself is the greatest example of this: before him, the Holy One, Satan could not keep hidden and was constantly compelled to show himself. So one might say that the disappearance of the awareness of the demonic indicates a related decline in holiness. The devil can take refuge in his favorite element, anonymity, if he is not exposed by the radiance of the person united to Christ." - The Ratzinger Report, page 148
 
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pdudgeon

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My understanding is that most Satanists are actually atheists, but anyhoo.
And that's fine. Doesn't mean you get to exclude Satanists from the civil sphere.

satanists as athiests makes perfect sense, since satan is not a god. just chalk that manipulation up to satan himself
who wants to be seen as invisable and harmless, until he has hooked in his victims. yea, right!

as for excluding bad influences from public life, it's done every day in private lives by parents who moniter what their children do, see, and say.
So why shouldn't public officials also be looking out for bad influences (like invoking the blessings and influence of demons)
that might cause harm or chaos to the citizens that they serve?

most public officials serve because they sincerely want to better their communities--not to subject them to harm.
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Here's a good quote, this time from Pope Leo XIII:

"Having embraced Christianity at the initiative of its King, Clovis, it [France] was rewarded by this most honourable testimony to its faith and piety, the title of eldest daughter of the Church...But when the human mind, filled with the poison of new opinions, had begun, in the pride of an untempered liberty, to reject the authority the Church, its downward course has been rapid and precipitate. For when the mortal poison of false doctrines had penetrated manners and customs themselves, society, to a great extent, came to fall away from Christianity. And in France the propagation of this plague was not a little promoted by certain philosophers in the last century, professors of a foolish wisdom, who set themselves to root up the foundations of Christian truth, and started a system of philosophy calculated the more vehemently to inflame the desires after unlimited licence which had been already enkindled. Nor was the help of these wanting whom an impotent hatred of religion binds together in unhallowed bonds, and daily renders more eager in the persecution of Catholics; and whether emulation in this evil work was greater in France than anywhere else, nobody, Venerable Brethren, can be a better judge than yourselves." - Pope Leo XIII, Nobilissima Gallorum Gens (On the Religious Question in France)
 
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LivingWordUnity

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In the Vatican II documents, it mentions how the modern age is particularly marked with a denial of God:

“Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken.” - Gaudium et Spes
 
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Armoured

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Because, and I know this is hard for you, public officials aren't allowed to make value judgements, as public officials, about anyone's religion.
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Here's something that Pope St. Pius X said about the godlessness of the Modern Age:


Pope St. Pius X (1903-14)

“Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge of God, he has contemned God's majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored. ‘He sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God’ (II. Thess. ii., 2).” – E Supremi (October 4, 1903)

“As a matter of fact, this present conflict is even more serious than the others. Although the wild innovators of former times generally preserved some fragments of the treasury of revealed doctrine, these moderns act as if they will not rest until they completely destroy it. When the foundations of religion are overthrown, the restraints of civil society are also necessarily shattered. Behold the sad spectacle of our times! Behold the impending danger of the future! However, it is no danger to the Church, for the divine promise leaves no room for doubt. Rather, this revolution threatens the family and nations, especially those who actively stir up or indifferently tolerate this unhealthy atmosphere of irreligion.” – Editae Saepe (May 26, 1910)
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Here are some wise words from Pope Benedict XV:


Pope Benedict XV (1914-22)

“Here then, Venerable Brethren, is a burden added to the other misfortunes of these times, with which, more than any one else, We are tried. For if We look around us and count those who are engaged in preaching the Word of God, We shall find them more numerous perhaps than they have ever been before. If on the other hand We examine the state of public and private morals, the constitutions and laws of nations, We shall find that there is a general disregard and forgetfulness of the supernatural, a gradual falling away from the strict standard of Christian virtue, and that men are slipping back more and more into the shameful practices of paganism.” - Humani Generis Redemptionem (June 15, 1917)
 
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LivingWordUnity

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And here's what Pope Pius XII said about the Modern Age:


Pope Pius XII (1939-58)

“The present age, Venerable Brethren, by adding new errors to the doctrinal aberrations of the past, has pushed these to extremes which lead inevitably to a drift towards chaos.” – Summi Pontificatus (October 10, 1939)

"Let all remember that the flood of evil and disaster that has over-taken the world in past years was due chiefly to the fact that the divine religion of Jesus Christ, that provider of mutual charity among citizens, peoples and nations, did not govern, as it should, private, domestic and public life." - Optatissima Pax (December 18, 1947)
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Bl. Pope Paul VI had this to say:


Bl. Pope Paul VI (1963-78)

“The Church itself is being engulfed and shaken by this tidal wave of change, for however much men may be committed to the Church, they are deeply affected by the climate of the world. They run the risk of becoming confused, bewildered and alarmed, and this is a state of affairs which strikes at the very roots of the Church. It drives many people to adopt the most outlandish views. They imagine that the Church should abdicate its proper role, and adopt an entirely new and unprecedented mode of existence.” – Ecclesiam Suam (August 6, 1964)

"The first sphere is the one which can be called the increase of unbelief in the modern world...From the spiritual point of view, the modern world seems to be forever immersed in what a modern author has termed "the drama of atheistic humanism." - Evangelii Nuntiandi (December 8, 1975)
 
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LivingWordUnity

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Pope St. John Paul II lamented the evil of our times when he said:


Pope St. John Paul II (1978-2005)

“In the modern world there is a tendency to reduce man to his horizontal dimension alone. But without an openness to the Absolute, what does man become? The answer to this question is found in the experience of every individual, but it is also written in the history of humanity with the blood shed in the name of ideologies or by political regimes which have sought to build a 'new humanity' without God.” – Redemptoris Missio (7 December 1990)

“This reality is characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable ‘culture of death’.” – Evangelium Vitae (25 March 1995)

"As I emphatically stated at Denver, on the occasion of the Eighth World Youth Day, 'with time the threats against life have not grown weaker. They are taking on vast proportions. They are not only threats coming from the outside, from the forces of nature or the 'Cains' who kill the 'Abels'; no, they are scientifically and systematically programmed threats. The twentieth century will have been an era of massive attacks on life, an endless series of wars and a continual taking of innocent human life. False prophets and false teachers have had the greatest success'." – Evangelium Vitae (25 March 1995)
 
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LivingWordUnity

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In one of his encyclicals, Pope Benedict XVI wrote the following:


Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013)

“This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence.” – Caritas in Veritate (June 29, 2009)
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LivingWordUnity

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And that was echoed later in Pope Francis' first encyclical:


Pope Francis (2013—)

“Today more than ever, we need to be reminded of this bond between faith and truth, given the crisis of truth in our age.” –Lumen Fidei (29 June 2013)
 
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