Vatican City, Aug 21, 2019 / 01:44 pm (CNA).- The superior general of the Society of Jesus said Aug. 21 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.”
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We have already seen Father Sosa’s methodology in action:
Jesuit Priest: No One Tape Recorded the Words of Jesus
https://www.lifezette.com/2017/02/jesuit-priest-no-one-tape-recorded-words-jesus/
Therefore, until Father Sosa produces a tape recording in which Jesus says, “I saw a Symbol fall from heaven like lightning”, I will not believe him (Father Sosa, not Jesus).
Ask Sosa how he understands the “divinity” of Christ…and the “Real Presence” in the Eucharist.
Sages declare prayer, fasting and donation of labor, as effective means to tame a legion of devils in oneself and in the surrounding set ups.
From the article:
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.”
So why is he saying things that are patently false to the press then? What he is saying is contrary to the Faith of the Catholic Church (as noted by the articles author with his quotes from the Catechism).
Catholics, laity or clergy, need to stop speaking in the public sphere when what they are saying is contrary to the the Faith of the Catholic Church. All they bring is confusion to the less educated Faithful and to non-Catholics who dont know better. Public chastisement is the only cure to public displays of willful or accidental ignorance.