“And these signs shall attend those

who believe: in my name

they shall cast out devils.”

Mk 16:17

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand!

Cure the sick, raise the dead,

cleanse the lepers, cast out devils.”

Mt. 10:8

“Then having summoned the twelve apostles, he gave them power

and authority over all the devils

and to cure diseases.”

Lk 9: 1-2

According to Pope Paul VI in 1972, "What arethe greatest needs

of the Church today? Do not think that

our answer is simplistic or superstitious and unreal: one of the greatest needs

today is the defense from that evil that we call

the devil."

And on May 24,1987, Pope John Paul II said, "The

battle against the devil, which is the principal task of Saint Michael the archangel,

is still being fought today, because the devil

is still alive and active in the world.“

In a lecture given on October 24, 1995

during the International Symposium

organized by theVatican Congregation

for the Clergy, the future Pope Benedict

that “preaching is connected with the

“casting out of devils” (1:39):

it is a matter not just of speech but of effective action.

And the preaching takes shape in no bright,

happy world, but in a world tyrannized

by demons, into which it intervenes so

as to liberate.”

And in his latest book, Jesus of Nazareth,

the Pope tells us that “The first task is preaching: to

give people the light of the word, the message

of Jesus … because the world is ruled

by the powers of evil, this preaching is

at the same time a struggle with those powers.”

Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict 16th stated in an interview (The Ratzinger

Report), “There are already signs of the return of these dark powers, and Satanic

Cults are spreading more and more in the secularized

world”.

Then Cardinal Ratzinger said to a group of bishops

attending a seminar (The Ecclesial Movements in the

Pastoral Concern of the Bishops) in June of 1999

regarding the devil that he “is always at work … instigating

untold cruelties, as unfortunately seen

throughout the twentieth century”

As Fr. Benedict Heron, OSB in his book “I Saw Satan Fall”

tells us, “part of the difficulty of resisting demonic attacks is

that most of them are not recognized as such even by

many Christians … he [Satan] is normally happier not to be recognized but to work in a

hidden and secret way – there is less danger of stirring up

opposition if he is unrecognized.”