The first written catechism of the Catholic Church, known as the
Didache, and dated somewhere in the first century A.D., begins
with a sentence of great clarity. It should be memorized: “There
are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great
difference between the two ways.” Discussions of the recent mass
murders, first in Aurora, Colorado, and again in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin confound us. Do these perpetrators simply not know
they picked the wrong way? How could they not know? And if they
knew it was the wrong way, how in the world can they will to do
evil? Our inner syllogism is a valid one. If a person a) doesn’t
know that he is doing wrong, or b) knows he is doing wrong but
wishes to do it anyway, then c) there is something wrong with
his knowing. We expect the natural process of knowing to involve
acting reasonably and willing a good outcome. Something seems to
be disrupting the natural flow of things. That something must be
either material, such as mental illness, or immaterial, such as
demonic poss