MIL OSI Translation. Region: Italy –
Source: The Holy See in Italian
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Vatican Media
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “I am saddened by the news coming from Lebanon, where in recent days intense bombings have caused many victims and destruction”. At the end of the general audience, Pope Francis’ thoughts go to the Middle East, in particular to Lebanon, hit by a new Israeli raid in the last few hours. And while the first Hezbollah missile is intercepted over Tel Aviv, the Pontiff, from the parvis of the Vatican basilica hopes “that the international community will make every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable! I express my closeness to the Lebanese people, who have already suffered too much in the recent past”. “And let us pray for all the peoples who suffer because of the war: let us not forget the tormented Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, all tormented peoples. Let us pray for peace”, adds the Pontiff, who during the general audience, today’s five hundredth, reiterates that one must not dialogue with the devil. “The strongest proof of Satan’s existence is not found in sinners or the possessed, but in saints,” says the Bishop of Rome, continuing the series of catecheses on the theme “The Spirit and his bride,” focusing today on the role of the Holy Spirit as “our ally in the fight against evil.” “It is true that the devil is present and operating in certain extreme and inhuman forms of evil and wickedness that we see around us,” Pope Francis emphasizes. “In this way, however, it is practically impossible to arrive, in individual cases, at the certainty that it is really him, given that we cannot know precisely where his action ends and our own evil begins. For this reason, the Church is very prudent and very rigorous in the exercise of exorcism, unlike what happens, unfortunately, in certain films!” “It is in the lives of the saints that the devil is forced to come out into the open, to place himself against the light,” he points out. More or less, all the saints and great believers testify to their struggle with this dark reality, and one cannot honestly suppose that they were all deluded or simply victims of the prejudices of their time”. And in our time, where technology reigns supreme, it is precisely this that offers, “in addition to many positive resources that should be appreciated, also countless means to give occasion to the devil, and many fall for it. Let us think of pornography on the Internet, behind which there is a flourishing market, we all know, it is the devil who works there. This is a very widespread phenomenon, but Christians must be wary of it and must forcefully reject it”. “Any cell phone has access to this brutality, to this language of the devil, pornography on the Internet”, the Pope said off the cuff. “The awareness of the devil’s action in history must not discourage us. The final thought must be, in this case too, one of trust and security. ‘I am with the Lord, go away!’ Christ defeated the devil and gave us the Holy Spirit to make his victory our own. The enemy’s action itself can turn to our advantage, if with God’s help we make it serve our purification. Be careful, the devil is cunning, but we Christians, with the grace of God, are more cunning than him”. (FB) (Agenzia Fides 25/9/2024) Share:
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.