Pope Paul VI's actual statement on "the smoke of Satan"

     One section of the lost post (see entry below) referred to the “smoke of Satan” entering the sanctuary. Some of my statements in the lost post could have been taken out of context to try show that I was advocating schism or even sedevacantism. (Such isn’t the case. I advocate neither.) I replied with the “smoke of Satan” quotation to show that a post VII pope shared my grave concerns.

     This led me to run down the provenance of the quotation to see if it was real. It is, so I present the formal version for you here, direct from the Vatican Website. It’s found in one of Paul VI’s 1972 homilies.

     As the original is in Italian only, you should be able to click here for a Google English translation. (If it doesn't work, I'm sure you can figure out how to run the translator yourself.)

     From the translation, which is a bit rough, the indications are that Paul VI believed that secular society constituted the smoke—that it’s a case of Church versus world and that we listen to the world rather than the Church. But what is modernism but a secular philosophy? And the point of his quotation, after all, is that the smoke isn’t just without but  within the Church.

     Other quotations from this same homily are equally interesting. For instance: “He [i.e., Satan] entered the doubt in our minds, and came to the windows who were to be opened to light.” And another: “In the Church this state of uncertainty reigns. It was believed that after the Council there would be a sunny day in the history of the Church. It came a day instead of clouds, storm, darkness, research, and uncertainty.”

     So there you have it.