The Heritage of Pilgrimage – Podcast
Dr. Italy, in this 14 minute podcast, discusses the central and constant role pi...
Dr. Italy, in this 14 minute podcast, discusses the central and constant role pi...
2 minute trailer for the new video Bible Study series from Ascension Press, Jesu...
The Passion of Perpetua and Feliciy contains the prison diary of Vibia Perpetua a young woman martyred in Carthage in the third century AD. This is on...
Religion is not supposed to be the opposite of spirituality. But sometimes religion becomes a cold routine, even a business. The Lord's cleansing of...
In this 14 minute podcast excerpt from the SonRise Morning Show, Anna Mitchell interviews Dr. Italy on the subject of the third pillar of Lenten penan...
Isn’t Advent great? Welcome to the season where the only song we sing for four weeks is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! It’s the best! Advent is...
28 November, 2016Most Americans tend to think of religion as something rather fluid. It’s very common for us to say things like “all religions are basicall...
12 February, 2016The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) here makes clear that Satan, aka the devil, cannot be reduced to a mere symbol of evil. He is a personal being, a fallen angel, who is at the same time not an evil god, but a creature who is neither infinite nor omniscient.
391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.266 Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”.267 The Church teaches that 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.”268
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.269 This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.”270 The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.271
393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.”272
394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning”, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father.273 “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”274 In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.
395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries – of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”275
These words on the Satan (the devil) and the fallen angels comes from Part I of the Catechism on the Profession of Faith, Section Two. For the entire text of the Catechsism, visit the Vatican Website.
266 Cf. Gen 3:1-5; Wis 2:24
267 Cf. Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9
268 Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800.
269 Cf. 2 Pet 2:4
270 Gen 3:5
271 1 Jn 3:8; Jn 8:44
272 St. John Damascene, De Fide orth 2,4: PG 94, 877.
273 Jn 8:44; cf. Mt 4:1-11.
274 1 Jn 3:8
275 Rom i:28
In 1985, an extraordinary meeting of the Synod of Catholic bishops was held in Rome to reflect on the Second Vatican Council which had concluded twenty years previous. A request was made that a universal catechism would be assembled that would provide a clear expression of Catholic doctrine in the scriptural and pastoral mode of the Council. Pope John Paul II established a special commission of bishops and Cardinals in the following year to begin working on the program. The initial French edition of the Catechism was published in 1992 and solemnly promulgated by Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum. After some minor revisions and evaluation, the Latin typical edition was published on the Feast of Mary’s Assumption (August 15), 1997. Pope John Paul II calls the catechism “a genuine, systematic presentation of the faith.”
No Comments