Pope Francis has stressed in a recent document that the devil is a real "personal being who assails us," just weeks after he drew controversy for allegedly telling a journalist that hell does not exist.
In his apostolic exhortation published on Monday, the Pope said that Christians should not think of the devil as a "myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea."
"This mistake would leave us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable," the Pope wrote in his exhortation called "Gaudete et Exsultate," as reported by Catholic Herald.
According to Reuters, Francis mentions Satan in the document more than a dozen times and warns about the "wiles of the devil," "the spirit of the devil" and the "snares and temptations of the devil."
The pontiff argued that people will not acknowledge the existence of the devil as long as they rely on empirical evidence alone and lack supernatural understanding.
He noted that there was a lack of understanding about the difference between demonic possession and mental illness during biblical times. But he said people today should not resort to oversimplification that could lead to the conclusion that the cases mentioned in the Bible were mere psychological disorders, and that the devil does not exist.
Francis drew headlines late last month after journalist Eugenio Scalfari, the former editor of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, claimed that the pontiff told him, "Hell does not exist."
During the interview, the Pope allegedly stated that souls of repentant sinners receive God's forgiveness, but the souls of the unrepentant who were not forgiven by God do not go to hell, but rather disappear.
"Hell does not exist, the disappearance of sinful souls exists," Scalfari quoted the pope as saying, as reported by National Catholic Reporter.
The Vatican immediately issued a statement saying the Pope's alleged comments were merely a product of Scalfari's "reconstruction" and not a faithful transcript of his interview with the Pope.
Scalfari, an avowed atheist, has previously stated that he does not take notes or record his interviews. He explained that he reconstructs the conversations afterward from memory, including the words that are put in quotation marks.
Following the release of Scalfari's article, the Vatican claimed that the Pope had met with Scalfari to exchange Easter greetings, but did not "give him an interview."
In his latest exhortation, the Pope cautioned against "unguarded tongues" in the media, noting that defamation and slander occurs even in Catholic-run outlets.
"It is striking that at times, in claiming to uphold the other commandments, they completely ignore the eighth, which forbids bearing false witness or lying, and ruthlessly vilify others. Here we see how the unguarded tongue, set on fire by hell, sets all things ablaze," he said, according to Reuters.
