“The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunkenmanstaggereth in his vomit.” (Is. 19:14)
“My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.” (Hos. 4:12)
“They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.”(Hos. 5: 4)
“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” (Mat. 12: 43)
“And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,Who hadhisdwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could anymantame him.” (Mk 5:2)
In Holy Scripture, there are all types of evil spirits (demons) mentioned: a lying spirit (I Kings 22:22-23); a jealous spirit (Num 5:14); a spirit of divination (Acts 16:16); but, the demon which Our Lord most frequently battled were the unclean spirits (Mat 12:43; Mk 1:23, 26; 3:30; 5:2, 8; 7:25; 8:29; 9:42; 11:24.) The legions of unclean spirits also include those demons particularly interested in sexual perversity among men. One of the early Church Fathers, St. John Cassian, wrote that the spirit of fornication is the “most unclean spirit.” He continued, concerning the struggle between Man and the forces of sexual perversity: “This savage war is longer than the others and of greater duration, and it is completely won by only a few because, although it begins its battles against humankind from the first onset of puberty, it is not terminated until the other vices have been overcome. For twofold is the attack that rises in aggression, armed with a doubled viciousness. And therefore it must be resisted by a doubled force since, inasmuch as it gains in strength by the weakness of both body and soul, it cannot be overcome except by struggling on these two fronts.”
In modern times, the voraciousness of the unclean spirits is concentrated within the phenomena of pornography. On the edge of the industrial age, St. John Bosco already saw the burgeoning influence of mass-produced porn upon the lives of those young men he attempted to morally educate and spiritually direct: “Another weapon the devil employs is immodesty, or more frankly, impurity. My dear children, be on your guard. The devil will tempt you with bad books, bad thoughts, or the foul conversation of a companion. When any such fellow approaches you, say to yourself, this is a minister of Satan. And let these wretches who indulge in foul conversation say to himself, I am a minister of Satan because I help him ruin souls!” Yet, in our own age, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, has offered much hope: “…even before Jesus said anything in the synagogue of Capernaum, the unclean spirit felt ejected and obliged to come out in the open. It was Jesus’ ‘holiness’ that seemed ‘untenable’ for the unclean spirit. The Christian who lives in grace and is temple of the Holy Spirit, bears in himself some of this holiness of Christ, and it is precisely the latter which operates, in the environments where he lives, a silent and effective exorcism.”