Posted on 08/22/2019 6:19:06 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
The devil exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality,' Fr Arturo Sosa claimed
The superior general of the Society of Jesus has said that the devil is a symbol, but not a person.
The devil, “exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because is not a person, is a way of acting evil. He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life,” Fr Arturo Sosa, SJ, said Wednesday in an interview with Italian magazine Tempi.
“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,” he added.
Sosa’s remarks came after he participated in a panel discussion at a Catholic gathering in Rimini, Italy, organized by the Communion and Liberation ecclesial movement.
The Catechism of the Catholic 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.’”
Angels, the Catechism says, are “spiritual, non-corporeal beings.”
“They are personal and immortal creatures,” it adds, who “have intelligence and will.”
Sosa, 70, was elected the Jesuits’ superior general in 2016. A Venezuelan, he has a pontifical licentiate in philosophy and a doctorate in political science. He served as a Jesuit provincial superior in Venezuela from 1996 to 2004, and in 2014 began an administrative role at the general curia of the Jesuits in Rome.
Sosa has offered controversial comments about Satan in the past. In 2017, he told El Mundo that “we have formed symbolic figures such as the Devil to express evil.”
After his 2017 remark generated controversy, a spokesman for Sosa told the Catholic Herald that “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.”
Unfortunately, he will not be condemned for this heresy by Jorge Bergoglio because 1) it often seems that Bergoglio shares this heretical position 2) this man is a Jesuit as is Bergoglio and technically this man is Bergoglio’s superior 3) The Church of Vatican 2 is full of heresy and is no longer the one true holy Roman Catholic Church.
Well no. The Pope is the boss of the Jesuits.
Didn’t realize what leftists the Jesuits were till Francis. I went to catholic parochial school for 10 years. 8 years in a Jesuit run parish (teachers were Dominican nuns). In the 50s and early 60s we were taught by quite conservative nuns. I never heard of sexual deviant priests in my parish but I assume they were there. I assume if I had become an altar boy I might have found out. The priest giving the lessons died over the summer before I could take the course and it was postponed for a year…thankfully.
Where’s that picture of Trump saying “Wrong”?
Bergoglio will not condemn him because modernist Bergoglio holds the same beliefs, as well as modernist social media priest Robert Barron, and many more of the church of nice modernists..
Satan and demons are energy beings , they can attain a human physical body through incarnation of birth or my invading an extant human body , causing either insanity, addiction, violent anger, and subversive propaganda.
To combat this dynamic one needs to have a firm awareness of what is good and what is bad. This awareness can come from the exercise of prayer or meditation on divine goodness and its associated intrinsic goodness which is present in every human being, but which can be obscured and confused through suffering, materialism and rampant self centered-ness ( ego).
I highly suspect that Fr. Sosa has a distinct lack of awareness of the nuances of Satan and other demonic energies. He likely has a “new age” Shirley McLean , view of our old adversaries and their continuing battle to destroy the connection between the divine and human beings.Therefore he erroneously has concluded that these negative energies are not “personal” or “unpersonified,” when in fact Sosa himself may very well have been subtly influenced by these energies.
Perhaps Sosa has never directly experienced evil. He needs to visit a war zone where the most vile aspects of negative energy can occur, with divinely influenced humans manifesting in the middle of it all.
And the pope believes that God could not have created the universe because He does not have a magic wand.
Was it in the Screwtape Letters where Satan boasted that his greatest triumph on Earth was convincing millions of people that he didn’t exist?
... Satan and demons are energy beings , they can attain a human physical body through incarnation of birth or my invading an extant human body , causing either insanity, addiction, violent anger, and subversive propaganda.
Maybe Dark Matter and Dark Energy...
Whatever they are
I like CS Lewis’ Dark Eldils
From the Space Trilogy
https://www.enotes.com/topics/space-trilogy/in-depth
and hell is a really warm spa.
Apparently, Jesus knew Satan. Though His teachings centered on His mission to be Savior to a fallen world, He did mention Satan at times. For example, in Matthew 25:41, He describes the judgement of those who did not follow Him: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” In His “High Priestly Prayer” (John 17:15), He prays for His followers who will face persecution,”I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”
It would be interesting to know if this Jesuit applies similar rationale to the Eucharist!!
Push him a little harder and he will confess that God is also not a personal reality.
Whatever works for you to understand the truth about the interaction of negative energy and the human realm. Manifestation of that energy goes on continuously, so does the manifestation of good energy, via human conduct. The battle is continuous and likely never ending. One has to view it all as an enlightened warrior. Awareness is the key, gentle and precise awareness.
You understand my point exactly.
Without a God, there is no good, nor evil. It’s just survival and pleasure at the expense of others, or not. Doesn’t matter. Hitler is no worse than Mother Teresa.
One day we will all meet God, face to face, and find out He is more than a symbol. Many will meet Satan face to face, also.
I see a very similar epic battle in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Makes a wonderful read over the occasional pipeful of Erinmore .
NONSENSE! Satan exists, and his name is Allah.
There is no Allah but Satan, and Muhammad was his murdering pedophile.
Jesuit ... ‘nuff said.
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