Devil in the City of Angels , livre ebook

TAN Books - Jesse Romero

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62 pages

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"I went from an indifferent apathetic Sunday Mass attending Catholic Christian to an on fire Catholic Christian in a few short years. What reignited my faith? The many encounters I had with the occult and diabolical." So says renowned Catholic apologist and retired veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Jesse Romero. Now for the first time in print, Romero reveals the harrowing details of his experiences with the demonic while working for the LASD. Discover the true stories of spiritual warfare being waged in the streets and alleys of L.A., including: Romero's encounters with Richard Ramirez, the infamous "Night Stalker" How the Rosary drove out a demon that had taken hold of a young man What happened when inmates involved in the occult would try to say "Jesus is Lord" How a young man who had committed suicide returned to beg his parents for prayers to release him from the pains of Purgatory ...and much more. The Devil in the City of Angels is much more than a catalog of strange and terrifying events. It exposes Satan as the Father of Lies so we can see how he works, and how to defeat him. Drawing on his own experiences as well as the most authoritative sources, Romero offers the reader numerous cautionary tales, but also that hope that is only found in Jesus Christ and his Church.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	29 juillet 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505113716
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Jesse Romero
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2019 Jesse Romero
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible—Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 2206 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture texts marked NABRE are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Scripture texts marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.
Cover design by Caroline K. Green
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019938671
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1370-9
Published in the United States by TAN Books
PO Box 410487
Charlotte, NC 28241
www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book
1 The Devil
2 My Encounters With the Diabolical
3 What the Bible Says About Witchcraft
4 Santa Muerte Is Satan in Disguise
5 Santeria—Is It Catholic?
6 Practical Advice to Stay Far From Satan and Keep Him Far From You
7 Prayers
FOREWORD
T oday we are witnessing an unprecedented rise in the occult all over the world, even inside the Church; the evidence for which is overwhelming. Scripture tells us that at the end of the ages, there will be an acceleration of evil such as has never been seen before. Unfortunately, the devil has lulled the majority of people in the world to sleep, comfortable in the erroneous belief that he doesn’t exist. In writing this book, Jesse Romero has done Holy Mother Church a great service because most Catholics get their information about spirits, angels, and demons from Hollywood movies and TV series.
Many people have had encounters with evil spirits and the diabolical, but because we have become more secular and less faithful, we are led to believe that demonic possession or simply an awareness of the devil is just a type of “mental illness” that can be cured with a pill or medication. Most people never talk about their personal encounters with evil spirits or demons because they are just too embarrassed to share these experiences for fear of being called “nuts” or “crazy.” This subject is taboo, and most people that experience the diabolical whisper it to a confidant. Jesse Romero, a well-known bilingual Catholic lay evangelist, has dared to speak up, and in the pages that follow, he shares in detail his encounters with evil spirits and witches. His stories follow St. Paul’s exhortation to expose the darkness (see Eph 5:11) because “the days are evil” (Eph 5:16).
Read this book, inform yourself, stay close to Our Lord and Our Lady; they will be your first responders when you call upon them. We serve Mary, a twelve-star general (see Rv 12:1–5). Your “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17) must be soaked in the blood of demons and dragons. Let’s unite our souls and prayers to the heel of Our Blessed Mother, the Sword of St. Michael, and the Precious Powerful blood of Jesus so that we can deliver a powerful blow to Satan and his kingdom and send them reeling back to hell on judgment day.
Bishop Eduardo Nevares, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix
INTRODUCTION
Why Did I Write This Book?
“B ecause one out of three (Catholic) theologians does not believe in the existence of Satan; almost two out of three believe in his existence but not in his practical actions and refuse to take it into account in pastoral activity. This leaves very little room for those who believe and try to act accordingly. The few exceptions are forced to act against the tide, and often are ridiculed and ostracized by the rest of the clergy. These statistics were gathered in West Germany in 1974 and were published in the Concilium.” 1 Those who don’t preach the truth from the pulpit about the reality of the devil and hell are guilty of “ecclesiastical malpractice.” Those teachers who are cowardly preachers in this life, if they don’t repent, will experience “climate change” in the next life.
It is not surprising that our clergy’s failings and weaknesses have been laid bare for all to see in extreme fashion in recent months and years. Our Lady of Akita, Japan, said to Sr. Sasagawa in 1973 regarding the intensity of demons against our clergy:
The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.… The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them. 2
Here is another reason I wrote this book: Catholics don’t believe in the devil!
A recent study reveals that Catholics are among the least likely to agree that Satan is a “living being.” That finding was published by the Center for Research on the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. A recent survey of 1,495 US adults who believe in God reveals that Evangelical Christians are nearly three times more likely than Catholics to believe that Satan is a “living being.” Fifty-five percent of Evangelical Christians interviewed view Satan as an active and “cunning adversary” as described in the New Testament while only 17 percent of all Catholics polled indicated that they viewed Satan as a living presence in the world. Rather, Catholics are more likely to view Satan as a symbol of evil rather than a “real” living being. 3 Contrast that with Catholic teaching as found within the Catechism of the Catholic Church , which describes Satan as a real being, specifically a fallen angel who rebelled against God (CCC 391–95).
Venerable Fulton Sheen observed more than fifty years ago that the Church’s real problem was that “our theologians have neglected the demonic.… The demonic is always most powerful when he is denied. It is almost impossible today to find a theologian writing about the demonic, unless it be to deny it.” 4 The problem is worse today … much worse.
In 2017, Cardinal Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia wrote the following of the Polish intellectual and convert Leszek Kolakowski:
Exactly 30 years ago, Kolakowski gave a lecture at Harvard entitled ‘The Devil in History.’ … Kolakowski saw that we can’t fully understand our culture unless we take the devil seriously. The devil and evil are constants at work in human history and in the struggles of every human soul. And note that Kolakowski (unlike some of our own Catholic leaders who should know better) was not using the word ‘devil’ as a symbol of the darkness in our own hearts, or a metaphor for the bad things that happen in the world. He was talking about the spiritual being Jesus called ‘the evil one’ and ‘the father of lies’—the fallen angel who works tirelessly to thwart God’s mission and Christ’s work of salvation. This is why the evangelization of culture is always, in some sense, a call to spiritual warfare. We’re in a struggle for souls. Our adversary is the devil. And while Satan is not God’s equal and doomed to final defeat, he can do bitter harm in human affairs. The first Christians knew this. We find their awareness written on nearly every page of the New Testament. The modern world makes it hard to believe in the devil. But it treats Jesus Christ the same way. And that’s the point. Medieval theologians understood this quite well. They had an expression in Latin: Nullus diabolus, nullus redemptor. No devil, no Redeemer. Without the devil, it’s very hard to explain why Jesus needed to come into the world to suffer and die for us. What exactly did he redeem us from? The devil, more than anyone, appreciates this irony, i.e., that we can’t fully understand the mission of Jesus without him. And he exploits this to his full advantage. He knows that consigning him to myth inevitably sets in motion our same treatment of God. 5
C. S. Lewis wrote a masterpiece on the diabolical that you should read if you have not already. In letter VII of his book The Screwtape Letters , the senior demon, who is named Screwtape, tells his young protégé, Wormwood, that the most effective thing he can do to bring souls to hell is to convince people that Satan does not even exist. 6 According to the above surveys, the devil’s tactic, as imagined by one of the great Christian writers, is certainly working.
Fr. Gabriel Amorth, a Vatican Exorcist for thirty-three years, wrote, “Theology will be unfinished and incomprehensible until it focuses on the world of the angels. A Christology that ignores Satan is crippled and will never understand the magnitude of redemption.” 7
Saint John Paul II stated, “He who does not believe in the devil does not believe in the Gospel.” 8
Fr. Pedro Mendoza Pantoja, a leading exorcist in Mexico, commented, “What the devil is interested in is to confuse us, either by making us believe that he doesn’t exist and that, since he doesn’t exist, n