January 13, 1946prev home next
I found a story in a newspaper concerning the occult and the abduction of free will committed against a poor young woman by a medium. I do not know whether the term I use - abduction of free will - is correct. The woman is definitely dominated by the desires of the medium, who makes her act with the voice and gestures of a person who died two years ago.
I said to myself, “I’ll copy this and send it to Giuseppe, as I sent him the report on Dora and received an exhaustive reply useful for deciding.” As I was writing on the story, my inner Advisor said to me:
“No, it should not be sent to Giuseppe. It is not necessary. It could provoke a return or the desire to return to mediumism in this man, who has just been cured of it. To speak of Dora was necessary, for it was a demonstration of how Satan can introduce himself into the higher Powers. Giuseppe had to remember, examine, and progressively end up on the right path. But here it is not. The whole matter is Satan. Do not tempt him. Rather, give the page you are copying to Father Migliorini. It will be of use to him for sermons, to show that Purgatory exists and involves suffering, and to confute the theories of those summoning up the dead. Do you hear? They suffer on coming and those who come through conjuration are souls not yet free from earthly forces - that is, still burdened with sins. I would have to say that, rather than souls, demons come. But the blessed Word has already spoken to you about this.148 Subjects should not add words to the words of their King.”
And he becomes silent. The good companion so ready to provide guidance so that I will not take steps in the wrong direction grows silent. Blessed be God!
The Gospel resumes.149
148 Among the passages relating to Purgatory, see, for example, the entry for October 17 in The Notebooks. 1943 and the entry for January 15 in The Notebooks. 1944.
149 We pass over more than two notebooks of handwritten pages containing twentythree episodes from The Third Year of the Public Life (written between January 22 and February 20, 1946).