I can understand — and observe in myself — human fallenness, a bentness that cries out for divine intervention in the form of the Incarnation of Christ. I can also easily accept that the Creator of the universe might, just might, have attributes that outstrip the few pounds of grey matter in my skull.

But when it comes to these angels and demons, I find myself at sea. What motivates them? I have glands, social pressures, a finite life, habits, etc. that push me this way and that. But what makes a demon tick? Or an angel? Specifically, what makes an angel rebel?

My brain has finite capacities due to its very architecture and metabolic constraints. How smart are demons? Are they good at math? Chess? (Yes, I watched “The Seventh Seal.” Doesn’t count.) Can they write poetry? Do they know whether dark matter is fermionic? Inquiring minds want to know.

How omniscient is Satan? Oddly enough, one must say that the attribution of so much to this singular figure actually makes Satan functionally more of a force/idea than a personal being.

Another well-known problem is that too often the demonic functions as a sort of default explanation for evil: the devil made me do it, as St. Flip always said. But, as I said already, who/what made the devil do it? One might begin to contemplate some sort of infinite Gnostic regression of Satans if it weren’t so silly.

Of course, I could be dead wrong. There may be more to all this than I know. It’d just be nice to have an angelology/demonology that goes beyond positing essentially human-like motivations to such beings when it suits us and God-like omniscience when that seems like the way to go instead.

According to the blog the Pope had an audience with the presiding board of the CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women – Confederación Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Religiosos y Religiosas) on June 6, 2013

“I share with you two concerns. One is the Pelagian current that there is in the Church at this moment. There are some restorationist groups. I know some, it fell upon me to receive them in Buenos Aires. And one feels as if one goes back 60 years! Before the Council… One feels in 1940… An anecdote, just to illustrate this, it is not to laugh at it, I took it with respect, but it concerns me; when I was elected, I received a letter from one of these groups, and they said: “Your Holiness, we offer you this spiritual treasure: 3,525 rosaries.” Why don’t they say, ‘we pray for you, we ask…’, but this thing of counting… And these groups return to practices and to disciplines that I lived through – not you, because you are not old – to disciplines, to things that in that moment took place, but not now, they do not exist today…”

Again, this did not come from an official site so no idea what came before or after

I see your point.

I’m not sure about the whole spiritual guidance thing. I guess there are things about it that may be helpful. But generally, when we look inward, we are asking for trouble. It seems to shift the focus away from the finished work to what we should, ought, or must be doing (oftentimes).

I could probably be a lot further off base than you.

Catholic or not, your understanding of the Evil Ones who revolted again God not Christian teaching….maybe some reading and prayer would help you see the validity and realness of these beings.