ROME — Pope Francis urged the faithful Friday to beware of the devil because he is astute and evil is “more seductive” than goodness.
“When I say not to dialogue with the devil, it is because the devil is evil, lacking anything good!” Francis said during a Good Friday interview that aired on Italian state television. “We say he’s like absolute evil. He is the one who rebelled totally against God!”
“Some say I speak too much about the devil. But he is real. I believe in him!” he said. “Some say: ‘No, he is a myth.’ I don’t go along with myths. I go along with reality. I believe it.”
Evil is “more seductive” than good, the pope insisted, and the devil “is seductive.”
“Seduction always tries to enter promising something,” he continued. “If sins were ugly, if they didn’t contain anything good, no one would sin. The devil presents something beautiful about the sin to you and leads you to sin.”
“The devil is always after our destruction,” Francis said, because “we are the image of God.”
The pope went on to say that every morning he prays the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel “so that it might help me conquer the devil,” he declared.
“Someone who hears me might say: ‘But, Your Holiness, you have studied, you are the pope and you still believe in the devil?’ Yes, I believe in him, I believe in him,” he stated. “I am afraid of him; this is why I have to defend myself so much.”
“The devil was the one who did all that maneuvering so that Jesus would end up like he did, on the cross,” Francis said. “The powers of darkness over Jesus: ‘This is your hour,’ the powers of darkness.”
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