The devil is real. A fallen angel who has chosen to reject God forever, he is jealous of men and wants all people to reject God just as he has.
Like all of the other angels, Satan was made by God as a purely spiritual and immortal creature, endowed with free will and supernatural intelligence. Created naturally good, he was invited to share in the divine life.
Envious of God and determined to rule instead of serve, Satan and his demons rebelled against God and were thrown out of Heaven by St. Michael the Archangel and his army of angels. Satan took refuge on Earth.
Also called Lucifer, the tempter, or the evil one, the devil is mentioned throughout the Old and New Testaments. The name Satan indicates that the devil is God’s chief adversary who falsely accuses Him of being a liar.
The devil’s only mission is to keep man from getting to Heaven by leading him to sin by division, deception and temptation.
Satan and his demons are powerful, but their power is not equal to God’s power. As a created being, the devil is inferior to God and can never defeat Him. Jesus overcame Satan, and the Catholic Church has power over evil through Christ.
Trusting in Jesus, Catholics should take the devil seriously, acknowledging his existence and never underestimating his influence which may be either direct or indirect.
Satan was an angel:
Fallen angels are real:
Then I saw an angel come down from Heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan, and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss, which he locked over it and sealed, so that it could no longer lead the nations astray until the thousand years are completed. After this, it is to be released for a short time.
Revelation 20: 1-3
The devil exists:
His name reveals who Satan is:
Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 391
The devil wants to lead people to evil:
The devil tempts man with things that God has already promised:
While God unites the devil divides:
The devil is at the origin of the first misfortune of humanity; he was the subtle and fatal tempter of the first sin, the original sin. From that fall of Adam the devil acquired a certain empire over man, from which only the Redemption of Christ can free us. It is a history that continues to this day: we remember the exorcisms of baptism and the frequent references in Sacred Scripture and the liturgy to the aggressive and oppressive “power of darkness”. He is the number one enemy, he is the tempter par excellence. Thus we know that this dark and disturbing being really exists, and that with treacherous cunning he still acts; he is the hidden enemy who sows errors and misfortunes in human history.
Pope Paul VI, General Audience, November 15, 1972
The attacks of the devil can be defended:
Because there is a devil, there is a real need for exorcists:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
This is what Jesus made his Church for:
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