Pope Francis: Where There Is Calumny, There Is Satan Himself!

 Pope Francis Continues To Speak On Satan
And The Works Of Evil!

 For the third time in as many weeks, Pope Francis has warned not to speak ill  of others, and again mentioned the devil in another striking homily this morning  in the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Martha residence.
Calumny, he said, is worse than sin and is the direct expression of Satan.  “We are all sinners; all of us. We all commit sins. But calumny is something  else. It is of course a sin, too, but it is something more,” he said, according  to a Vatican Radio report.

“Calumny aims to destroy the work of God, and calumny comes from a very evil  thing: it is born of hatred. And hate is the work of Satan. Calumny destroys the  work of God in people, in their souls. Calumny uses lies to get ahead.” Be in no  doubt, he said: “Where there is calumny, there is Satan himself.”
He then gave the example of St. Stephen, who was a victim of calumny,  wrongly accused of bearing false witness, and was martyred because of it. The  Church’s first martyr, the Pope said, does not repay falsehood with falsehood.  Instead, he “looks to the Lord and obeys the law”, being in the peace and truth  of Christ. It’s the way of martyrdom, he said, and there have been   numerous examples of those who have witnessed to the Gospel with great  courage.
But he added  and later repeated  that the age of martartyrs “is not yet  over” and that “even today we can say, in truth, that the Church has more  martyrs now than during the first centuries.”

“The Church has many men and women who are maligned through calumny, who are  persecuted, who are killed in hatred of Jesus, in hatred of the faith,” the Holy  Father continued. “Some are killed because they teach the catechism, others are  killed because they wear the cross … Today, in many countries, they are  maligned, they are persecuted … they are our brothers and sisters who are  suffering today, in this age of the martyrs”.

This age of “such great spiritual turmoil” reminded the Pope of an ancient  Russian icon that depicts Our Lady covering the people of God with her mantle:  “We pray to Our Lady to protect us, and in times of spiritual turbulence the  safest place is under the mantle of Our Lady. She is the mother who takes care  of the Church. And in this time of martyrs, she is the protagonist, the  protagonist of protection: She is the Mother. (…) Let us state with faith:  Mother, the Church is under your protection: Care for the Church.”

This is the third time at these early morning Masses that the Pope has warned  against speaking poorly of others. Last month he said it was the equivalent of  selling someone “like a commodity,” not unlike Judas, who sold out Jesus for 30  pieces of silver. A few days later, he warned against gossip, saying that  complaining behind each other’s backs is a temptation that comes “from the Evil  One, who does not want the Spirit to dwell among us and give peace.”

Since his election last month, the Pope has also made frequent references to  the devil. Observers have noted this emphasis with interest, especially as  explicit mentions of the devil largely fell into disuse in the years following  the Second Vatican Council. With his disappearance from Church texts, exorcists  complained that the rite of exorcism had become useless against demons.

Pope Francis’s frequent allusions to “Satan” and the “Evil One” may well be  part of an effort —one that Benedict XVI had already begun  to cast out the  presence of evil and so bring back healing and harmony to the Church, and to  parts of the Vatican in particular.

Taken From:  National Catholic Register. 
By: Edward Penetin