Invoking Satan is a way of saying “the devil made people do it”.
People need to be responsible for their own actions.
Wrong DNA.2012, as The Most Rev. Robert Finn, Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, has said: “Our enemy is the deceiver, the liar, Satan. Because of his spiritual powers he can turn the minds and hearts of men. He is our spiritual or supernatural enemy when he works to tempt us, and he becomes a kind of natural enemy as he works in the hearts of other people to twist and confound God’s will. In our human experience people deceived by Satan’s distortions and lies may appear as our ‘human enemies.’
But, in his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul makes, for us, a very important distinction. ‘Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power,’ He tells them and us. ‘Put on the armor of God, in order that you can stand firm against the tactics of the devil.’ ‘For, our struggle,’ St. Paul tells us, ‘is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the rulers of this darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.’ (Eph 6:10-12).
So let’s be clear: Human beings are not Satan, but certainly they can come under his power, even without their fully realizing it. When we, in our sinfulness, put something in the place of God: pleasure and convenience; material success; political power and prestige, we open a door for the principalities and contrary spirits who war against God. They want you and me for their prize. When we forsake God and outwardly reject His law and what we know to be His will, we make an easy victory for our supernatural enemies. We fall right into their hands.”
See full address here:
http://www.catholicbible101.com/weareatwar.htm
Don’t criticize Rick Santorum for saying what many Bishops - such as Charles Chaput - have also said. Santorum is not the one making this his campaign focus. He made his comments several years ago and some are trying to use his comments for their own political agenda. But he is merely asserting what the Church believes and teaches - that which is emphasized by Sacred Scripture - that our struggle is with principalities and powers.
If you don’t like that message, that’s your problem. But Santorum has a right to his Catholic faith and his beliefs.