When I go to give lectures in schools, the children listen to me in a religious silence. Many members of the clergy seem to want to emancipate themselves from concepts that seem too medieval, backward or even superstitious to them, while the belief in the devil is still quite widespread in the rest of society, especially among the youth. After Vatican II, the desire to rationalize the faith, especially in regions where Catholicism was very traditional, was sometimes too radical, and we threw the baby out with the bathwater. ![]() Even if there are good reasons to believe it on a rational level, it is not enough. We try to find an explanation, a demonstration to everything, but as I recall in my book, the existence of the devil is not to be demonstrated - it is to be believed. We live in a period of great rationalism nowadays. Why do you think the questions surrounding the devil are so “snubbed” by theological circles nowadays? It makes him a kind of social worker, but nothing more. I sometimes wonder how a priest can remain faithful to his vocation without believing in the devil. Obviously, the devil is not at the center of the faith, but his figure is indispensable to understand the mystery of faith. Whoever denies the existence of the devil is a heretic. Faith deprived of the belief in the existence of the devil is not genuine because the existence of angels is a truth of faith, and the devil is a fallen angel. It is the fundamental reason why I wrote this book. ![]() Indeed, I am an exorcist, and it really hurts me to hear people in general and priests in particular deny the concrete action of the devil in our lives. Why did you write this book, which addresses a wide audience?įirst of all, I wrote it because there are a lot of prejudices, ignorance and confusions to be addressed. While discussing the content of his book with the Register, Father Dermine warned the Catholic faithful not to neglect religious education, which is the first bulwark against the advance of the devil and Satanism in society. Tra superstizioni, mito e realtà (“Let’s Reason About the Devil: Between Superstitions, Myths and Reality”), was written in a question-and-answer format and seeks to inform the public - believers and nonbelievers - about the nature and scope of Satanic activity at a time when the devil’s very existence is being increasingly questioned, even by Catholic leaders. This annual event, held in Rome, gathers priests, women religious and lay experts from around the world to focus on Satanic activity and the formal ministry that the Church established to respond to such activity.įather Dermine is president of the Italian Catholic association GRIS (Social-Religious Information Research Group) and professor of moral theology at the Theological Faculty of Emilia-Romagna he is also the author of several books about the ministry of exorcism and the dangers surrounding the obscure and dangerous beliefs and practices of the occult. In 2003, he contributed to the creation of the “Course on Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation,” a weeklong interdisciplinary workshop on exorcism. ![]() For this reason, Dominican Father François-Marie Dermine decided 20 years ago to recatechize Catholic people through different initiatives.Ī Canadian by birth, Father Dermine has been an exorcist for several Italian dioceses since 1994. The “death” of the devil in people’s minds is accelerating the “death” of God in de-Christianized Western societies.
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