 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
| Send your comments to the Editor
04/29/01 What the devil...? You can read what Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa told Pope John Paul II on Page 9 of this week’s Catholic New World. In a nutshell, it’s this: we are at risk when we ignore the reality of Satan, prince of evil and father of darkness. In a somewhat more histrionic vein, the Weekly World News trumpets its front page with: “EVIL SPIRITS SPREAD TERROR IN SCHOOLS; Teenage devil worshippers unleash the power of Satan.” An explanation: I usually glance furtively at the headlines of papers of this ilk. I’m fascinated by their frequent take on things religious. This time, though (and may the media gods forgive me), I actually bought a WWN. You can’t see me hanging my head in shame as I write this, but I am. Obviously, this headline required professional investigation. So I spent several minutes in exhaustive research, until I was lured away by a story and photo from Russia, “Man cuts off his head with a chain saw—and lives!” But I managed to stop before I got caught up in the tale of the 5,300-year-old Ice Age mummy revived by scientists only to escape and be run over by a car. Anyway, it’s no surprise that I think the pope’s preacher has the better story. Still, WWN’s take was … well … interesting. And the two stories do come together, albeit just a little. WWN gives a nugget of supposed fact: a not-yet released U.S. Department of Education report on a rise in satanic behavior among teens. For instance, two out of three teens between 13 and 18 have “invoked an evil spirit.” There’s little argument that occult behavior has been on the increase and that ought to be troubling. But it may be a reach to lay the blame totally on a personification of the devil. For the faithful and even the not-faithful, Satan is real and evil is real. But as Cantalamessa told the pope, “Seeing the devil everywhere is no less misleading than seeing him nowhere.” And I’d rather hear about battling evil from a perspective of faith than from faux journalism in the pages of WWN. Tom Sheridan Front Page | Digest | Cardinal | Observations | Interview |
|||