advocatus diaboli


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advocatus diaboli

(ˌædvəˈkɑːtəs daɪˈæbəˌlaɪ)
n
another name for the devil's advocate
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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References in periodicals archive ?
This may very well be a matter of producing aesthetic versions of a kind of internal, loyal critique of potentially false sainthood, as per the role of the "advocatus diaboli" in the Catholic process of canonization.
For more than 500 years, this canonization process has followed a formal procedure in which one person (a postulator) presents the case in favor and another (the promoter of the faith) -- an advocatus diaboli, or devil's advocate -- presents the case against.
The advocatus diaboli interrupted with periodic snorts and sarcastic queries, and when he was finished, the advocate raked at his story with semantic tooth and nail until Francis himself wondered if he had really seen the old man or had imagined the incident.