Lacking energy for an academic exercise as well as patience for Internet polemic, tonight I shall just offer a news item as food for thought.
For weeks now, appliances and furniture throughout a Sicilian village have been catching fire for no apparent natural cause. Those in charge are talking "the Devil." Ordinarily I don't bring up things like this or even think about them much; in my experience, regular priests are as likely as atheists to think one dotty for doing so, even though the former are too careful to say so openly to a man of my education. Perhaps many such things just are tabloid stuff, not to be taken seriously. But the Vatican's chief exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, takes this one seriously. And he is a man to be taken seriously.
Do you share his attitude? If so, why? If not, why not?
