Catholics & Satan

How come FrG never mentions Satan? I don't
remember him talking about the devil even
once. Yet Lucifer is a huge part of the Catholic
religion:

'The Catholic Church has always held that the devil is real, not a mythical personification of evil... At baptism, those to be baptized are called upon to reject Satan, his works, and his empty promises.'

Do Catholics actually believe Satan is a real
being?

"The evil that surrounds us today, the disorders that plague our society, man's inconsistency and brokenness, are not only the results of original sin, but also the result of Satan's pervasive and dark action." Pope John Paul II

So the devil is real and lurks around trying
to do what, trip old ladies in the street and
steal a babies candy? Gimee a break.

The devil is indeed very real and he is trying to make you despair, hate yourself and others, and cause you pain while killing your soul. It ain't nothing to be trifled with. If you are looking for real evidence of the supernatural look no further than the reality of exorcisms and demonic oppression or possession. There is amble evidence of such things that unfortunately continues to grow.

you're right, Bob, it's been at least 5 seconds since we messed with Fr G.. how about a new thread!

Quote: FrGamble

If you are looking for real evidence of the supernatural look no further than the reality of exorcisms and demonic oppression or possession.

I never cared for that movie. and the satire version "Repossessed," was both too late and too little to my tastes. Though I did like the scenes where the "devil" mocks Leslie Nielsen by misusing his character's name "Father, May I?" That was clever.

Quote: FrGamble

The devil is indeed very real and he is trying to make you despair, hate yourself and others, and cause you pain while killing your soul.

Too bad there isn't even the tiniest amount
of evidence that any of this is true. That the
13th century is alive and well in the heads
of the leaders of the Church is pretty frightening,
however. We have a long way to go before
we live in a world that is free from the silly
superstitions of the past.

I have many experiences myself but there are videos and recordings of exorcisms that defy explanation. As they say the greatest trick of the devil is to convince people he is not real.

Quote: FrGamble

I have many experiences myself but there are videos and recordings of exorcisms that defy explanation.

I'd be interested to see/hear them.

Quote: FrGamble

I have many experiences myself but there are videos and recordings of exorcisms that defy explanation. As they say the greatest trick of the devil is to convince people he is not real.

I have videos of strange lights in the sky
from dozens of sources that have never
been explained. They are alien spacecraft
for sure, by default.

That old saying about the devil is right up
there for cornball-ness with 'god works in
mysterious ways' and my all time favorite,
'when you pray, sometimes the answer is no',
that's why you see no results.

Satan is nothing more than the made up enemy
of the Church, it gives them something to
battle against. The Church needs Lucifer, just
like Sherlock needs Dr Moriarty. Both are
made up bad guys.

The clearest example was a family who called me in a panic on Saturday evening. The caller was one of two sisters who was very worried about their brother. He was drinking a lot and that day he had passed out in the early evening. This guy was a high school dropout and having a very hard time getting his life together. Later that evening he sat up and began goose-stepping around their small apartment shouting in German chants and long speeches. Granted none of them spoke German but they assured me it was not gibberish or just some made up language. He was speaking in a voice different than they had ever heard before as well and to say they were freaked out was a grave understatement. They were all Catholic but had not been to Mass in a very long time. I tried to calm them down and they all agreed to meet me after one of the morning Masses that Sunday.

After Mass I met with the sisters and asked where their brother was. They told me that as soon as they entered the Church their brother had frozen and was unable to move. He became very afraid and after a while of trying to get him to take a seat he bolted and ran away. I started to ask them about what was going on in their life and there was a fair amount of drug use, alcohol and some others. They also told me they had started to see a physic person and do séances for quite some time. I told them the first step was for them to come back to the Church and stop seeing the physic but they could not. They looked sad about it but could not for some reason stop seeing this person. They also admitted that their problems and their brothers really started manifesting itself around the time they started seeing this physic person as a family. We all went away sad and I never saw them or heard from them again.

There are many other stories I could tell as well some a little more scary and others downright weird and all unexplainable.

How did they know it was German?