Diabolus Read Free Page A

another century.”
    “But we will be, Your Holiness.”
    “Not if you use your best judgment,” Leo told him.
    “But what is my ‘best judgment’ when I don’t even believe in demonic possession?” Salvatore asked, still not believing he was having this conversation with a Pope. The Pope.
    “Domenico, my son, your best judgment is whatever is best for the church .”
    Salvatore finally understood. He was to have the power to visit hundreds, maybe thousands of persons per year who were suffering from any number of problems, use the Papal Credit Link to buy their healing, and choose a few here or there who couldn’t be ‘saved’ even by the wealth of the Catholic Church. Those few would have true spiritual maladies that couldn’t be cured with money, only by cleansing of the spirit by trained exorcists like Bishop Salvatore Antonelli. He was to make a big show of those few cases, big enough to make the rest of the world take notice, especially those who had fallen out of the faith, but not so big of a show that the circus tent would collapse on him. Or the Church.
    “Your Holiness,” he practically begged Pope Leo, “I feel this is wrong. This is a lie. God would not approve of such a scheme.”
    “This is not a scheme !” Leo thundered without warning, causing Salvatore to shrink back into his high-backed, crushed red velvet chair. “This is the beginning of the rebirth of the Roman Catholic Church! It is not a lie to equate mental illness or emotional instability with the evil influence of Satan. It is not a lie to show the world that the Catholic Church has relevance, that sometimes money and power cannot cure every ill, especially those of the spirit! I’m sure you’ll be convincing. The fate of the Church rests upon your shoulders to be the public face of our faith, Salvatore. How is that a lie? How is it a lie to remind those who have fallen away from the Holy Trinity that they have left behind the most powerful influence in the universe? How is it a lie to bring believers in front of the Lord God? To teach them once again that our Father has a place in their lives, just like they’ve always had a place in His?”
    “I… I’m sorry, Your Holiness,” Salvatore wept, falling out of his chair to his knees at Leo’s feet.
    He reached for Leo’s hand to kiss the ring, but Pope Leo stood up and rested a hand on his bishop’s head.
    “Enough, Bishop Antonelli. It is a sign of faith that you have seen the truth of it, the need to recall the followers to the flock. It is also a sign that Satan has at least a tiny grip on your faith as well as your heart, yes?”
     
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    Salvatore Antonelli was an excellent bishop. He excelled at his task of bringing the faithful back in droves. In each city he visited, he used the modern technology and social networks that he’d advocated the Church utilize to draw crowds, or at least a holocaster to each case he visited. He learned all about performing exorcisms while traveling to each new case. By the sixth month, he was ready to reveal to the world that demons were indeed a real possibility, and that at the behest of Pope Leo XIV, he was trained in the ancient art of exorcism, the last known one being almost sixty years previous. It was time to reclaim the world from the evil of Satan, whether it be through electronic, emotional, physical, or spiritual means.
    He’d been nervous performing his first exorcism, a young girl with severe emotional trauma and a mental disorder that caused her to scream vulgarities and make sexual advances to those around her, whether male or female. Tourette’s Syndrome was curable with chemical therapy and a cranial implant that regulated electrical signals in the brain, and the trauma could be resolved using regressive emotion immersion therapy. However, he needed a good first exorcism, and she was the perfect candidate. All through the act , he followed the words and motions that others before him had, minus