Q. What does the Catholic Church have to say about ghosts?
A. The ghosts that inhabit haunted houses, graveyards, or any other place may indeed be real entities and not always the figment of imagination.
However, the popular idea that they are the spirits of human souls who have died and are trapped here for some reason is not possible. They are much more likely to be demons disguising themselves as the “ghost” or spirit of a human being for the purpose of leading people away from the true faith.
For instance in the book, The Beautiful Side of Evil, Johanna, a young woman gets caught up in a form of New Age religion down in Mexico City, where her father worked for an American company. She is eventually encouraged to ask for Spirit Counselors to aid her in her meditation. They are told they may choose two people. Johanna chose Jesus and Sarah Bernhardt. Through meditation her counselors come to her and they were Jesus and an elderly Sarah. But the next time she does this, after a prayer to God to reveal her counselors, God answers her prayer and she sees instead of Jesus …
“The hair was wild and matted, the forehead was covered with a coarse fur and the eyes were slanted, gleaming and wild…Fresh blood smeared the muzzle and oozed down long white fangs; the droplets spattered down the front of the same tunic” Jesus wore the last time. Then, another time the demonic faces appeared and then the kind and gentle face of Jesus would flash on–then the demonic face would flash on. The same thing happened with Sarah–on and off–on and off.”
Now I realize this is not the same as seeing a ghost. It is just an example of how a demonic entity can deceive by appearance.
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
In fact, the Church believes that spirits, do exist. There is the visible physical realm all around us but also unseen there is a spiritual realm.
2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal
Ephesians 6:11 Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. 12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
So, yes the Catholic Church absolutely does believe in a spiritual realm. This realm is inhabited by Angels and Demons, Our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the souls of those who have died are also part of this spiritual realm but not allowed to contact living humans without the express permission of God.
Luke 16:22 The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and his soul went to the place of the dead….27 “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. 28 For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’ 29 “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’ 30 “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’
31 “But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Filed under: Satan Tagged: | conjuring, ghosts, spirits, spiritualism
As a interested onlooker, I really think the church has a lot of secrets;
1: why burie a persons body 8ft underground if the devil comes from below?
2: why do we cremate people if hell is full of fire and they also used to burn witches at the steak for black magic (devil worship)?
3: why not tell us about the devil as much as god? Why not let us decide?
4: prove to us there is a god!
5: If god is the king,father, power and glory then why doesn’t its workers(pope nd vicors) run the world in the way he wants it to?
Just a few questions needing answered!
If they don’t believe in ghosts then how can they say jesus rose after he died and his follower saw his ghost.
They didn’t see his ghost. It was him., Jesus Christ, the third person of the trinity. This wasn’t some haunting. There is proof of God. If you truly want to know, you have to take at least, a half hour a day and pray. Do this for seven days. Ask God, I believe, help my unbelief. If you truly want to find the answer, you will do this. God never holds back the truth from someone who asks. We put many obstacles in our life. Find time and pray. If you have a hard time believing in God, what would make you believe in the devil.
Our bodies don’t come with us when we die, its our souls that pass on. We will get a new body, an everlasting body, and those who denied Jesus will also get an everlasting body, but that body and soul will suffer fire for all eternity. Again, this is your choice, Jesus died for us. We don’t have to choose death. Peace be with you.
Second Person of the divine Trinity.
In response to the above:
bodies were being both buried and cremated prior to the Christian era. In a practical sense, we are limited as to what we do to respectfully dispose of the body, while allowing the natural law to take it’s course. In speaking about spiritual realities, we refer to hell as “below” to give a spiritual realm space. It doesn’t put the bodies closer to the devil.
Cremation is done for many reasons, including financial costs. My father-in-law had to recover bodies during the war, and opted for cremation because he did not want it to go through the natural corruption process that he had witnessed. Fire is understood to be purifying. Unfortunately, when those accused of witchcraft were burnt at the stake, it was seen as a means of purifying them.
To talk about the devil as much as God would be unbalanced. Why? The devil is a created creature, as much as any of us are. Do any created creatures deserve the stature of the Creator? Why choose a created being, instead of the Source of all creation —God? And we can decide—God gave us the gift of free will, but as for me I will choose the One who is the Source of all.
Prove that there is not a God. Can you see the wind? No, you only see or feel the effects of the wind. Does the wind exist? Yes. So it is with God. He is known by what He does. The fullest revelation of God is in Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be fully God and fully man, who lived in Palestine in the 1st century A.D. Not only does the Bible refer to Him, but there is historical evidence from non-believers as well.
Whatever we understand God to be, He is more than we can know. God’s “workers” are all believers, but they do not make up the population of the world. Moreover, free will is in every human being. They can choose to do good and avoid evil, or they can reject what is good for many reasons. God is not a dictator, so He gave us free will in order that we can choose to come to Him in love and not in fear.
When Jesus appeared to His followers after the resurrection, He was not a ghost. He was raised body and soul. His followers touched Him and ate with Him. He was not limited by time and space anymore, but His body was real. It is the hope that all believers have that someday, after death, our bodies and souls will reunite in a way that God has planned for eternity.
In order to better understand what the Catholic Church teaches, it would be better to schedule an appointment and sit down and talk to a priest.
hi. first of all, to prove that there is a God in heaven m just look around, creation tells u so. God put am embro in a womb, every living thing has eyes, heart, lungs, ears (som don’t) . The oceans know where to stop. the bible says that God put a boundry line for it to end. the moon, earth, stars are just suspended in the air. the seasons change at the time they r supposed to. the list can go on and on. please read the bible. buy you a concordance in depth it will help u understand more.
If you let God and Jesus into your life, the Holy Spirit will empower you to no longer be blind and have doubts.
There’s also an interesting encounter after the resurrection where Jesus’ disciples think he is a ghost and Jesus doesn’t rebuke them for believing in ghosts, he just says that he isn’t one himself.