He has three very clear ideas about humanity’s struggle against Satan. But Francis has taken the subject to a new level. President Cristina Kirchner, who pushed hard for the radical legislation, responded : “Bergoglio’s position is medieval.” But truth is objective and not time-conditioned, so Bergoglio’s defense of marriage stands.ĭuring the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the devil was by no means downplayed: John Paul’s Catechism highlights his presence, and Benedict was inveighing against Satan long before he became pope, notably in the Ratzinger Report. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a “move” of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God. Let us not be naïve: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan.
Jesus defines him as the father of lies.”Ĭontending with the devil, he continued, “is precisely man’s battle on earth.” That same year, Cardinal Bergolio rose to publicly challenge Argentina’s move to redefine marriage: At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts. In On Heaven and Earth, his 2010 book with his friend, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, the then Cardinal Bergoglio spoke of the devil in the starkest terms: “He is the tempter, the one that looks to destroy the work of God, he that brings us to self-sufficiency, to pride. Ignatius, who always recognized the reality of spiritual warfare. During his formation as a Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio adopted the intense spirituality of St.
Striking as his words are, they are not surprising. Michael, the Archangel, who “defends the People of God from their enemies, and above all from the arch-enemy par excellence, the devil.” And in early October, Francis powerfully rebuked those who deny the existence of Satan, warning against relativism, deceit, and “the seduction of evil.” In July, Francis consecrated Vatican City State to St. Within twenty-four hours of being elected, the new pope declared : “When one does not profess Jesus Christ-I recall the phrase of Leon Bloy-‘Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.’” The following day, Francis continued : “Let us never give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil tempts us with every day.” In his homily for Palm Sunday, he spoke of problems which appear insurmountable: “In this moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly speaks his word to us. But whereas Paul waited nearly ten years to speak so dramatically about Satan, Francis took only a day. Like his venerable predecessor, Francis has made it a point to draw the world’s attention to the wiles of the devil. Neither, as we’ve come to learn, is Pope Francis-if by “modern” we mean an abandonment of the supernatural, and a flight from Christianity’s most challenging teachings.
For the cartoonists Paul VI was definitely not a modern man. One of Paul’s biographers describes their reaction: Cartoonists refurbished their stock of clichés, producing cloven hoofs, long sinuous tails, ugly contorted faces and terrifying implements of torture.
So they struck back”with sarcasm, ridicule and contempt. But Catholic dissidents didn’t want to be criticized, much less told they might be assisting the devil. Paul’s words were a warning to all who, taken with the “spirit of Vatican II”-rather than the Council’s actual teachings-had fallen under the sway of dark spirits. Describing the chaos then consuming the post-conciliar Church, he lamented : “From some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” Peter and Paul, Pope Paul VI delivered a sermon that startled the world.