Pope Francis: “Where there is calumny, there is Satan himself.”

Today, in his fervorino at Mass, Pope Francis again mentioned the Enemy of your soul, the Devil.

He talks about the Devil frequently when speaking off the cuff.

From the site of Vatican Radio with my emphases and comments:

The Pope drew inspiration from the daily readings, in particular the first reading that recounts the episode of Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, being dragged before the Sanhedrin because of his witness to the Gospel. Pope Francis noted that Stephen was a victim of calumny. He is accused of “false witness” but it is not a “fair fight, a fight between good men”, noted Pope Francis, because Stephen’s enemies chose the path of a dirty fight, “the path of calumny”. Calumny he continued is worse than sin – it 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. 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. And let us be in no doubt, eh?: Where there is calumny, there is Satan himself. ”
From the behaviour of the accusers, Pope Francis then turned his attention to the accused. Stephan, he noted, does not return falsehood with falsehood: “He does not want to go that way to save himself. He looks to the Lord and obeys the law”, being in the peace and truth of Christ. And that Pope Francis said “is what happens in the history of the Church“, because from the first martyr until today there have been numerous examples of those who have witnessed to the Gospel with great courage:
“But the age of martyrs is not yet over, [Get that?  Don’t imagine that you are safe just because you don’t live in modern Nigeria or 20th century Mexico or ancient Rome.] even today we can say, in truth, that the Church has more martyrs now than during the first centuries. [St. Augustine Zhao Rong and 119 companions, 498 Spanish martyrs, …] 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: 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“.
And again Pope Francis repeated “The age of martyrs is not yet over, the Church has more martyrs now than during the first centuries”. 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. [Schutzmantelmadonna!] 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. ‘”

Just the other day, the Pope spoke about the harm caused by gossip.

What is calumny?  From the good old Catholic Dictionary:

Calumny is the deprivation of another of his good name by imputing to him, behind his back, something injurious to his reputation of which the speaker or writer knows he is innocent. It incurs an obligation of making restitution so far as possible.

Related to calumny is detraction.

Detraction covers those sins commonly referred to as uncharitable talk; it is unjustly depriving another of his good name behind his back, either by calumny or by saying that which is true; in the latter case there is no right to publish what is true against him without just cause if it is not publicly known, for every man has a right to his good reputation so long as he can retain it.  But for a just cause (e.g., the public good, or to protect the innocent) the secret sin of another may be made known.   The degree of seriousness of detraction is in accordance with the harm done the person detracted and the malice of the speaker; being a sin against justice as well as charity it leaves an obligation of making restitution as far as possible.  He who by listening to detraction encourages it actively or passively sins equally with the detractor.

Note the obligation to make restitution.  If you publicly detract from a person’s reputation, you must make equally public corrections and/or apologies.

Be careful of those dark, satanic feathers.  They seem to very light, harmless even.  But they can kill.  Once they are out of the pillow, you won’t be able to collect them and get them back into the pillow again.