According to Catholicism, can an entire nation be possessed by a demon?

In Matthew 8 read with Mark 5, we see Jesus allowing many evil spirits who called themselves Legion, enter pigs. 2000 plus swines then take a uniform decision to drown in the sea . Now, possession of a nation by evil spirits would mean not only the possession of human beings, but of all other living beings including cattle, and also of the air and water etc etc which the nation survives on. God's theory of 'Show-me-10 Righteous men' about Sodom and Gomorrah is testimony to how a large group of individuals can be influenced in one go by the devil. But, how many demons it takes to possess a full nation of say, 10 million people, apart from other living beings, is a matter of sheer speculation.

According to Catholicism, can an entire nation be possessed by a demon?

According to Catholic belief demons or fallen angels retain their natural power, as intelligent beings, of acting on the material universe, and using material objects and directing material forces for their own wicked ends; and this power, which is in itself limited, and is subject, of course, to the control of Divine providence, is believed to have been allowed a wider scope for its activity in the consequence of the sin of mankind. Hence places and things as well as persons are naturally liable to diabolical infestation, within limits permitted by God, and exorcism in regard to them is nothing more that a prayer to God, in the name of His Church, to restrain this diabolical power supernaturally, and a profession of faith in His willingness to do so on behalf of His servants on earth. Exorcism

I would venture to say yes. But that also does not mean that each individual is diabolically possessed. It would mean more so that the leaders of such nations were possessed by the Demon. After all, the leaders run the nation in question!

Pope Pius XII performed exorcisms on Adolf Hitler, the Nazis, and the Communist Party. The work of an Italian Vaticanist published this autumn lifts a corner of the veil on exorcisms practiced by the popes and long clothed in papal secrecy.

“The devil’s greatest malice is to make people believe that he does not exist,” Baudelaire said. For those who still have doubts, the Vaticanist Fabio Marchese Ragona, has just published in September 2020, a book entitled Il mio nome è Satana - My Name is Satan.

One of the work’s interests lies in several accounts of exorcisms carried out in the Vatican itself, by various sovereign pontiffs, in particular by Pope Pius XII, who tried to cast out the demon by whom he estimated that Adolf Hitler was possessed.

But this is not the only exorcism that John XXIII’s predecessor performed from the Vatican. The author of Il mio nome e Satana confides in having discovered, during the investigation which enabled him to write his book, documents attesting that the Pope had also carried out an exorcism on the Italian Communist Party, on the eve of the elections of 1958.

Pius XII was hoping to prevent the Communist Party, notoriously anti-Catholic, from winning the elections. It should be remembered, ten years earlier, the same Roman pontiff had approved a decree of the Holy Office prohibiting any Catholic, under pain of canonical sanctions, from joining or supporting the Communist Party.

Long after his death, in a 1969 report, Pius XII’s own nephew testified to seeing that his uncle was very anxious and had trouble sleeping in the days leading up to the 1958 election: “in the three days leading up to the vote, the pope also performed exorcisms,” ensures Carlo >

He also noted that Pius XII had prayed and offered penance and his own sufferings for this intention: a sign of Providence, the Pope’s prayers were answered, and the Communists lost the election.

As Fabio Marchese Ragona points out at the beginning of his book: “The devil can win battles. Sometimes important ones. But never the war.” Enough to give a little hope when the darkness of circumstances seems to prevail. - The Day the Pope Exorcised Adolf Hitler