Is the Devil afoot? And if he is, then why aren’t we being told?

In the last week or so, reports from around the world indicate that the Prince of Darkness is brazenly emerging from his pit.

In Kansas Last Friday, there was a clash between Satanists and Catholics over an attempt to stage a "Black Mass" inside the statehouse. This resulted in the arrest of the president of the local Satanic Grotto who seemed to be upset by what he believed was the state’s preferential treatment of Christians.

Then, in an alarming development, the LGBTQ charity, Stonewall, insisted that one in 10 members of their community had experienced actual exorcisms.

Now, I belong to the old Christian philosophical ecole that says “when you talk of the Devil, he’s sure to appear”. Thus, this column comes with a trigger warning. Don’t be trying any of this at home whenever the curtains start to rustle or the ornaments aren’t where you thought you’d left them.

Read more by Kevin McKenna

I may have mentioned previously that I spent a year in my teens studying to be a priest. My hopes of fighting the good fight were dashed though, when a gentle and kind Father Superior took me aside and wisely suggested that “perhaps the Lord wants you to work for Him in another part of His vineyard”. I got the message.

At one point, I’d entertained thoughts of getting into the South American jungle, converting the tribespeople and joining them in battle against CIA-backed Contras before dying a martyr’s death in a hail of bullets in the Amazon.

Then I encountered an old priest who told me that the Vatican deployed a secret army........

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