Satan is working overtime to undermine the RCC

[Smaug]

Well done Satan, keep up the good work, keep a seat warm for me


Pope blames devil for Church divisions and scandals

The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has said.

The pope is convinced that Satan is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis and deep divisions racking the Church.

The pope asked Catholics around the world to recite a special prayer every day in October to try to the devil back.

“(The Church must be) saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past,” Post Francis said.

Since he was elected in 2013, Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real. In a document in April on holiness in the modern world, Francis mentioned the devil more than a dozen times.The Church has recently been hit by one sexual abuse scandal after another, from Germany, to the United States, to Chile. At the same time, a deepening polarization between conservatives and liberals in the Church has played out on social media.

Francis’ use of the term “the great accuser” to describe Satan hit a raw nerve with one of the pope’s harshest conservative critics, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican’s former ambassador to Washington.

In an 11-page statement published on Aug. 26, Viganò launched an unprecedented broadside by a Church insider against the pope and a long list of Vatican and U.S. Church officials.

He accused Francis of knowing about sexual misconduct by a former U.S. cardinal with male adult seminarians but not doing anything about it.

Viganò, concluding that his former boss had singled him out as the devil in disguise, complained in his next statement that Francis “compared me to the great accuser, Satan, who sows scandal and division in the Church, though without ever uttering my name”.On Sunday, a Vatican official issued a scathing open letter accusing Viganò of mounting a “political frame job devoid of real foundation” and contesting his accusations against the pope point by point.

Catholics are being asked to recite the rosary daily in October and conclude it with a prayer to St. Michael that was said after Mass until 1964 but then fell into disuse.

The prayer reads:

“St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”

 

[Perry_Mace_On]

Religious people getting down to the nitty gritty of what they're meant to believe is always hilarious.

"My faith to me is about bringing people together, believing in humanity, seeing the beauty in all things, having faith and having hope. That's all. Also, I believe there's an evil demon that seduces people and makes us do horrible things. He has horns."

 

[PROCNA2018]

Pope says evil at the heart of the sexual abuse scandals. If it isn't evil? what is it?
I would call sexual abuse evil.

Or are we in the realm of grey haired man in the sky versus man united crest guy - because it's the Pope saying it?

 

[Perry_Mace_On]

Pope says evil at the heart of the sexual abuse scandals. If it isn't evil? what is it?
I would call sexual abuse evil.

Or are we in the realm of grey haired man in the sky versus man united crest guy - because it's the Pope saying it?

People do evil things. Evil doesn't make people do things.

There's nothing responsible but people.

 

[Meridian]

I thought the devil died and is buried in Killarney.

Like in the song.

 

[PROCNA2018]

People do evil things. Evil doesn't make people do things.

There's nothing responsible but people.

So we are agreed people are evil, not all you understand, but some. So evil exists or they couldn't be evil.

What you are objecting to is the personification of evil in an entity the church calls Satan because it in some way says he is an Al Pacino Devil's Advocate who is making people do bad things??? When in fact it could just as easily be interpreted that the church is saying that evil, call it whatever you want, call it Amelia Golightly, and its existence in people's hearts is what makes them do bad things.

But no it can't be because religion is evil whether it is RC or Islam or Shinto Buddhism right?

 

[Perry_Mace_On]

So we are agreed people are evil, not all you understand, but some. So evil exists or they couldn't be evil.

What you are objecting to is the personification of evil in an entity the church calls Satan because it in some way says he is an Al Pacino Devil's Advocate who is making people do bad things??? When in fact it could just as easily be interpreted that the church is saying that evil, call it whatever you want, call it Amelia Golightly, and its existence in people's hearts is what makes them do bad things.

But no it can't be because religion is evil whether it is RC or Islam or Shinto Buddhism right?

I don't agree at all.

Evil is an adjective. It's a description of behaviour. It's not supernatural.

There's no-one externally manipulating the levels of evil in people. People make decisions, take actions and then there are effects. Of course, environment has an influence. A person can be brought up bad, and an argument can be made that they're not entirely responsible for their actions.

But it's all just people.

It's a closed system.

 

[PROCNA2018]

I don't agree at all.

Evil is an adjective. It's a description of behaviour. It's not supernatural.

There's no-one externally manipulating the levels of evil in people. People make decisions, take actions and then there are effects. Of course, environment has an influence. A person can be brought up bad, and an argument can be made that they're not entirely responsible for their actions.

But it's all just people.

It's a closed system.

So evil does not exist. Curious.

I already agreed with you that no one was externally manipulating levels of bad behaviour in people and that people make decisions, take actions and then there are effects. I agree environment has an influence. I agree a person can be brought up bad but disagree that any argument can be made people are not entirely responsible for their actions unless they have some incapacity, mental or otherwise.

I agree people are just people.

I find it curious though you believe evil does not exist.
When someone does something they know to be wrong, in the case of sexual abuse of children for example, these people are not evil just making choices that do not have good consequences?

You know better than that.

Is sociopathy a mental illness? In which case if a sociopath goes on a shooting spree should we not put them in a mental facility as oppose to imprison them? After all it is not that they are inherently evil, they are just a person.

I think you know that is a stretch.

 

[Perry_Mace_On]

They can be described as evil, but that's not the same thing as saying evil exists.

Evil is just a human concept.

What the the guy wearing the funny hat is talking about is something else entirely.

Do you think evil exists in the way he does? That it's controlled by the devil?

 

[Tube a Pringles]

Why don't they just elect a pope that is capable enough to go down to Georgia and beat the devil in fiddle playing contest and be done with it?