On the Alarming Trend of Dismissing Personified Evil as Myth

On the Alarming Trend of Dismissing Personified Evil as Myth

By Prof. Anthony Maranise, Obl.S.B.

A concerning paradigmatic shift appears to have taken root among many progressive and academically formed Catholics in recent decades. Whenever the possibility of demonic presence arises—whether full possession, oppression, obsession, or infestation—there is frequently an immediate and exclusive insistence upon a psychiatric, psychological, or psychosomatic explanation. The demonic is treated as the residual category that must be ruled out first, or more often simply dismissed, rather than as a reality that may coexist with or exploit natural afflictions.

This stance risks neglecting a longstanding element of Catholic anthropology and spiritual theology: the Evil One can and does make use of our genuine weaknesses, illnesses, and hardships for his own ends. Contemporary discourse often frames the matter as a strict binary—either a medical/psychiatric condition or demonic influence—leaving little room for the more complex possibility that both may be operative simultaneously. In practice, the demonic dimension is rarely accorded the careful consideration and seriousness that the Church’s tradition demands.

A seasoned exorcist once cautioned me: “If the evil one cannot have a soul, he will try to take a life.” This insight underscores the opportunistic nature of diabolical activity. Why, then, should we be so quick to exclude the possibility that a person may suffer a genuine medical malady or psychiatric condition while also experiencing demonic influence? Or that the Enemy may actively exacerbate existing medical or psychiatric vulnerabilities?

Catholic tradition has never required an exclusive either/or. The human person is a substantial unity of body and soul; spiritual attack ordinarily produces or intensifies psychological and somatic effects, just as natural vulnerabilities can provide the Enemy with a foothold. Prudential protocols requiring thorough medical and psychiatric evaluation before major exorcism remain essential and wise. Yet those protocols exist to enable proper discernment, not to foreclose the supernatural dimension once a natural diagnosis has been established.

An integral Catholic approach recognizes that the same person can stand in need of competent medical care and spiritual remedies—sacraments, prayer, and, where morally certain, the Church’s deliverance ministry—without reducing one order of reality to the other.