Q. Since Satan’s evil seems to me to surpass the sin of the fallen angels, I assume he tempted them. Also, why did God allow sin in Heaven? Is this why he’s making a new Heaven and Earth? As a side comment, I think that the fallen angels were intelligent, but also really stupid. Keep up God’s work. I enjoy your column and answers. — D.H., via e-mail.
A. It is beyond our ability to give a complete answer to these questions, so we will turn to Fr. Gabriele Amorth, formerly the chief exorcist for Rome, who has written an excellent book about the power of Satan and possession by evil spirits. In the book, which is entitled An Exorcist Tells His Story, Fr. Amorth made the following comments, which may be of some help in answering the questions asked by D.H.:
“Satan was the most perfect being created by the hands of God. His God-given authority and superiority over the other angels are recognized by all, so he thought that he had the same authority over everything that God was creating. Satan tried to understand all of creation, but could not, because all the plan of creation was oriented toward Christ. Until Christ came into the world, God’s plan could not be revealed in its entirety. Hence Satan’s rebellion. He wanted to continue to be the absolute first, the center of creation, even if it meant opposing God’s design.
“This is why Satan continually tries to dominate the world (‘the whole world is in the power of the evil one’ — 1 John 5:19). Beginning with our forefathers, he seeks to enslave men by making them obey himself and disobey God. He was successful with our forefathers, Adam and Eve, and he hoped to continue with all men with the help of ‘a third of the angels,’ who, according to the Book of Revelation, followed him in rebellion against God” (p. 26).
Fr. Amorth said that “God never rejects his creatures. Therefore, even though they broke with God, Satan and his angels maintain their power and rank (thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, and so on) even if they use them for evil purposes. St. Augustine does not exaggerate when he claims that, if God gave Satan a free hand, ‘no man would be left alive.’ Since Satan cannot kill us, he tries to ‘make us into his followers in opposition to God, just as he is in opposition to God’” (ibid.).
The exorcist also said that “the truth of salvation is this: Jesus came ‘to destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8), to free man from Satan’s slavery, and to establish the kingdom of God after destroying the reign of Satan. However, between the first coming of Christ and the Parousia (the second, triumphal coming of Christ as judge), the devil tries to entice as many people as possible to his side. It is a battle he wages with the desperation of one who knows he is already defeated, knowing ‘that his time is short’ (Rev. 12:12).
“Therefore, Paul tells us in all honesty that ‘we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12)” (pp. 26-27).
Q. What do we know about the sufferings in Purgatory? I have heard that they are worse than any sufferings on Earth. Is that true? — A.C., Pennsylvania.
A. First of all, the souls of the just in Purgatory are destined for Heaven, even though they may not have been cleansed of all stain of sin when they underwent the Particular Judgment. What that means, said Fr. John Hardon, SJ, is that “the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due, either for venial sins or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. It may also mean the venial sins themselves, which were not forgiven either as to guilt or punishment before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death and, if so, how the remission takes place.”
Fr. Hardon said that “we are not certain whether Purgatory is a place or a space in which souls are cleansed. The Church has never given a definite answer to this question. The important thing to understand is that it is a state or condition in which souls undergo purification.”
He also discussed the biblical roots of Catholic belief in Purgatory, even though the word itself does not appear in Scripture. The classic biblical texts are 2 Macc. 12:42-46, Matt. 12:32, and 1 Cor. 3:13-15.
In the last reference, St. Paul implies suffering in Purgatory when he says that “if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.” The suffering is thought to be of two kinds: a pain of sense and a pain of loss.
According to Fr. Hardon, “writers in the Latin tradition are quite unanimous that the fire of Purgatory is real and not metaphorical. They argue from the common teaching of the Latin Fathers, of some Greek Fathers, and of certain papal statements, like that of Pope Innocent IV, who spoke of ‘a transitory fire’ (DB 456).” How intense these pains are, we don’t know, although St. Thomas Aquinas held that the least pain in Purgatory was greater than the worst on Earth. He was joined in this opinion by St. Bonaventure and St. Robert Bellarmine.
The other kind of suffering in Purgatory, said Fr. Hardon, is the pain of loss. He said that this suffering “is intense on two counts: (1) the more something is desired, the more painful its absence, and the faithful departed intensely desire to possess God now that they are freed from temporal cares and no longer held down by the spiritual inertia of the body; (2) they clearly see that their deprivation was personally blameworthy and might have been avoided if only they had prayed and done enough penance during life.”
He pointed out, however, that “parallel with their sufferings, the souls also experience intense spiritual joy. Among the mystics, St. Catherine of Genoa wrote: ‘It seems to me there is no joy comparable to that of the pure souls in Purgatory, except the joy of heavenly beatitude.’ There are many reasons for this happiness. They are absolutely sure of their salvation. They have faith, hope, and great charity. They know themselves to be in divine friendship, confirmed in grace and no longer able to offend God.”
Q. Our Holy Father is obviously a loving and compassionate spiritual leader. However, after carefully reading the text of his historic speech to the combined houses of Congress, I was disappointed and view it as a lost opportunity. While the United States has never been a Catholic nation, certainly concepts of Christianity are apparent in its founding and Christian principles have been prominent in our culture throughout its history.
However, although our nation has enjoyed success in almost eliminating material poverty, unfortunately, in recent years it has abandoned many of those Christian principles and we have, I believe, fallen into spiritual poverty. This is evidenced by 56 million abortions and counting, with much of our political leadership celebrating abortion as a precious, guaranteed right, with support from public funds. And now most recently, the sacred institution of marriage has been redefined to include sodomy.
Obviously to me, considering the above, our nation is in dire need of a spiritual ‘wake-up call’ and who better to deliver that than the leader of our Church, our Holy Father? Unfortunately, I saw no such warnings in his speech. — D.M., via e-mail.
A. We have read the Holy Father’s speech to Congress, too, and wish that he had been more forceful on the issues you mentioned. He didn’t specifically mention abortion, but did quote the key passage from the Declaration of Independence about being endowed by our Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And he said that “the golden rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.” However, he then zeroed in not on abortion, but on the death penalty.
Likewise, Pope Francis did not specifically mention the elevation of sodomy to a constitutional right, or the imposition of “same-sex marriage” on the country, although he expressed “my concern for the family, which is threatened perhaps as never before from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question as is the very basis of marriage and the family.”
The Holy Father has denounced both of these evils on other occasions; it’s too bad that he wasn’t more specific before the U.S. Congress.
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