Angels, Demons, and Pope Francis by John Cali and Spirit

Luca_Giordano_-_The_Fall_of_the_Rebel_Angels_-_WGA9019Artist: Luca Giordano, 1632—1705

As some of you know, I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, and spent many years in Catholic schools. I graduated from a Jesuit college.

I loved the Jesuits because back then, when the church was still entrenched in the Middle Ages (it seemed to me), they were the vanguard, the forward thinkers.

Nonetheless, the Jesuits still taught traditional theology and philosophy. But they added an exciting new perspective, in contrast to everything I’d been taught before. They also added a brighter energy, an alternative to the sense of unworthiness and guilt I grew up with in our conservative Catholic parish.

One of the theological teachings of the Catholic Church was (and maybe still is) there were in the beginning only “good” angels. But some of them rebelled against God and were cast into hell. They became the “fallen angels.” Lucifer was one of those, and he, according to some accounts, is the entity also known as Satan.

And then there are the lesser “evil spirits.” These spirits can, according to Catholic teaching, “possess” humans. In fact, the church has a procedure for removing evil spirits—it’s called “exorcism,” a term most folks are familiar with.

Pope Francis, in May last year, may or may not have performed and exorcism—it depends on who you listen to.

According to a recent article in The Independent, a British newspaper, the Catholic Church in Italy and Spain has seen an increase in requests for exorcisms. Therefore, some Italian and Spanish dioceses are training more priests to do exorcisms.

I grew up in a family of Italian immigrants,and lived in a small town where there were many other Italian immigrant families. Some of the older Italians in my grandparents’ generation believed in what they called the “evil eye.” Supposedly someone who had a grudge against another person could cast an “evil eye” on them, thereby cursing them with an evil spirit or two.

There were some Italian women, generally the older ones, who were supposedly able to remove these curses. That was, I guess, also a form of exorcism.

All this is interesting to me and, I’m sure, to others. But even when I was a practicing Catholic and we were taught all this stuff was real, I had a hard time believing in Satan, evil spirits, the “evil eye,” etc. Today, of course, I don’t buy into it any of it at all.

Over the years my spirit guides have spoken many times about evil, and human misconceptions of what evil really is.

They have also spoken often about God and love. Their definition of God is, simply, “all that is.” Love is, by their definition, the choice to see the divinity in all beings—in all that is.

Everything that exists is part of God. In fact, everything is God. So, if we accept that, then it logically follows that everything we call “evil” is also God.

There’s a longer discussion of these ideas in the Tuning In movie.

P.S. Although I’m no longer Catholic, I greatly admire and respect Pope Francis (who happens to be a Jesuit). In my opinion, he’s the greatest thing that’s happened to the Catholic Church in a long, long time.

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In this Abraham-Hicks video Abraham and Esther talk about demons and fallen angels. Are they real or not?

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Do you believe in evil spirits or Satan? Does Satan exercise the great power over humans the Catholic Church says he does? Is he even real? Please share your thoughts and comments with us.

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What other subjects would you like us to talk about in these posts? Please email me.

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About John Cali

John Cali is a writer, blogger, and channel for a group of spirit guides. His next book is Conversations With Spirit: Real Answers to Life’s Pesky Questions, Book 1. John lives in northwestern Wyoming. Sign up for his newsletter here.

18 Responses

  1. Hans Brockhuis

    Thanks for the Blog, John. In my opinion, devils, demons, hell, and such are human inventions created to control the population. I also was raised as a catholic, but left the church many years ago, as you did. Indeed the new pope Francis seems to be a little less conservative than his predecessors, but I think that the church is still far away from female priests, to name one of the issues Rome is dealing with.

    • John Cali

      You’re quite welcome, Hans. And thank you for your thoughts and comments.

      I agree with you — the Catholic Church is still a long way from seeing women as equal to men. That’s sad. If I was still a Catholic, I’d be pretty disillusioned with some of the Vatican’s woefully outdated thinking. But they are changing, albeit slowly. Francis has certainly been a wonderful “breath of fresh air.”

  2. George Ball

    Good to get this message from you, John; good that you escaped your early indoctrination. I am glad that Pope Francis is an improvement over past Popes. I am reminded of my favorite prayer — from St. Francis of Assisi. At the same time, I shudder at many of the requirements and prohibitions that the Catholic Church attempts to enforce. I support cafeteria Catholicism as a lesser problem. I am happy with the Catholic prohibition of the death penalty but I would like to hear about it frequently.

    • John Cali

      Thank you, George, for your kind words. The Prayer of St. Francis is also my favorite.

  3. Sarah Drury

    Hi John,
    I can totally empathise with your religious upbringing, although I was not raised a Catholic. I was, for my teen years, raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and my life consisted of bible studies, meetings, door-knocking and a great deal of guilt and fear. The good vs evil theme was very prominent. We were taught that if we didn’t follow the teachings then we would be destroyed at ‘Armageddon’!! Anything ‘esoteric’ was ‘evil’ and after so many years I could not live in such a state of fear and prohibition any longer. However, such was the conditioning that it took a long while to recover from the sheer fear and dogma.
    I loved Abraham-Hick’s video, it was the most sensible and satisfactory explanation I have heard so far. To me there is no good vs evil. Just love and fear. Love is real, fear is manufactured by man. There’s always been a lot of fear in many religious organisations and I can understand why … control. Just like politics I suppose!
    I like Abraham-Hicks’ explanation that there is no such thing as an evil entity. Just fear-based thought forms which are a lot weaker than those based on love and compassion.
    I am so glad that I was able to break free from the dogma of the religious group I was a part of. My beliefs now are a million worlds apart from those I had even into my late thirties. I appreciate your work, John, in teaching and providing an avenue and haven for discussion without any fear of judgement. Thanks, you are a guiding light.

    • John Cali

      Thank you very much, Sarah.

      We had a Jehovah’s Witness church in my hometown. Although I did not agree with their extreme fear-based approach, it was not all that different from the conservative Catholic environment I was brought up in. And I did admire their dedication to their beliefs — they were far more dedicated than most of the Catholics I knew back then.

      As you said, the fear some religions instill in folks is simply an effort to control and manipulate. That was certainly true of the Catholic Church I grew up in.

      I appreciate your kind words, Sarah — and I appreciate your support.

  4. Jenelle

    Thank you John!

    This subject hits close to home for me as well, as I was raised Catholic, married into a Catholic family, and raised my three boys Catholic. Even though I am no longer a practicing Catholic, I have the greatest respect for Pope Francis, and feel he is the change that has come to breathe new life and truth into the church and the world.

    From the first moment he was elected Pope, he stood in his truth and authentically went against the grain of tradition, steadfast in his desire to simply BE compassion, grace, awareness, openness, tolerance and love.

    He is aligning with the new vibration of the Earth, and bringing in a wave of understanding to the people. How refreshing and exciting to see this transpiring within the traditional and dogmatic “walls” of the church. He is creating windows for the followers to finally be able to SEE all of the simple beauty and grace around them and, most importantly, within them.

    So wonderful to hear him talk openly and honestly about past judgements, abuse, and challenges the church has faced and handled so poorly.

    Thank you to Pope Francis for being a beacon of Light for all. He is a beautiful example of what we all strive for within ourselves…Truth, Authenticity, Compassion, Light, and Love without being blanketed in guilt and judgement.

    As always, thank you John for being you and for bringing wisdom and Light to us on a daily basis. We are so thankful for you!
    Love you, John!

    God is ALL…all is LOVE…we are all ONE…we are all LOVE…we are all GOD

    • John Cali

      Thanks so much, Jenelle, for your most eloquent comments and thoughts — and for your very kind words.

      I feel we are all moving into a truly “new age.” Not in the way that phrase is often used — but in the sense that we are moving closer and closer to global oneness, and into a much higher consciousness than we’ve ever known.

      Lots of love to you, Jenelle

  5. Mikala

    We chose to come to this planet of polarity with free will to chose our own course. The choice is between the negative and the positive energy available. We came both to learn from our experiences with these energies and how it makes us feel. What brings us joy? Everyone will eventually see the Light. So, my take on this is, if we were given free will to experience it all, there is no “wrong” way to follow the pathway to ascension. I must admit, we do have some slow learners, but that is OK too. Our individual job is to Love, to share the Light, to become all that we are and always have been. One, with the One, united.

    I believe that evil is in the mind of the beholder, a choice.

  6. Jeannie

    The ‘fall’ from Grace is an interpretation of man becoming aware in physical reality. Lucifer (The Morning Star) is a symbol of man who became aware of his ego self. (He, his, she her is all the same when I speak of man) The interpretation of the ‘fall’ has been very misunderstood but more people are realizing that we are not evil simply because we are. In many myths if not all of them there is always an ‘evil’ personification; Satan, Apep or Apophis in Egypt, and of course in Native Americans Coyote to name a few. They hold the personification of destruction yet without a destroyer of the status quo there can be no advancement. Change isn’t evil though there are some who think it is so. From destruction comes renewal, the Phoenix rises out of the ashes of the old. I’ve always had a soft spot for The Morning Star and I have a book by Taylor Caldwell “Conversations with the Devil” where Lucifer and Micheal are talking. In a way it gave some understanding between seemingly good and evil.

    Yes this pope seems to be more open, more honest, and more fun.

    love and hugs
    Jeannie

  7. Joseph k

    Another great post john
    I tend to keep an open mind about these things
    There probably is truth in everything if you look deep enough or from th perspective of those who believe in it
    My understanding from wht I’ve studied nd gathered
    These things were part of the old religious paradigm and worldview
    The church brought order to the universe in these concepts so peopl could understand life in hat way and be led into good ways,in their vie anyway
    Many people still believe in these things evil etc
    A quick online search confirms that
    The modern view of lots of these old spiritual and psychic concepts would be its just another form of mental illness
    Esoteric teachings can show a deeper understanding of these concepts
    But a course a lot of hat has been hidden ,particularly in the western world
    I ve read a bit about these things
    The explanation for the devil is that is what someone would look lik if they completely degenerated and succumbed the lower energies
    It’s a warning sign to stay strong in the good ways and watch out!
    Esoteric teachings explain these things quite well
    Rupert sheldrake has done research into stuff like the evil eye which some cultures see as self evident and true in ‘th sense of being stared at’
    These psychic sometimes superstitious phenomenon are quite taboo in modern technological industrialised society ,where science is the guiding force and these hints re seen as mere superstition
    The occult has a bit of a bad reputation but still contains some truth and many of he best and brightest through history hve been part of secret societies etc, just look at th dollar bill! All seeing eye and all the rest
    I suppose we are moving towards a new more holistic worldview and we went from Strict Religious dogma guiding society to secular trade and economics and probably what we are doing with this kind of thing is helping build a more holistic healthy positive worldview moving towards a global community and society ,it’s difficult but it’s promising
    And indeed the pope francis revolution is a great development and no doubt he’s being well guided by the Jesuits and progressive people in the church
    Of course some people just want to keep it simple and never mind esoterics,maybe it’s best to leave it to the seekers who really want to know
    God or all that is is enough of an explanation for most
    I’m sorry for rambling on and please excuse any errors ,this thing won’t let me look back that I just wrote
    Anyway pope francis is doing a good job and things are shifting
    Good luck!

  8. stephanie Allen

    I am loving this Pope! I had forgotten the Catholic CHurch until he stepped up —- good man!

    I beleive there is a darkside ever present in the world. And that our light casts out all dark and so we show only love as we pass by one another. I believe there are people who wait to see the light and are taken in by the dark side and that through love we always can reach them if we take the time and see each perosn right in front of us!

    • John Cali

      Thanks a lot, Stephanie. I think Francis will positively energize the church — he’s already begun.

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