Necromancy, spiritism, magic, diviner

See also: Possession (Divine, Satanic), Exorcism, Satan, Evil and Its Origins.

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Statue of St Michael the Archangel - Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, Cartago, Costa Rica.

Calling upon the dead, or any entity likely to grant us a power over the Neighbor, is contrary to the virtue of Religion.

• Why call the dead? They cannot speak. The saints because charity forbids them: they would too often contradict you. The damned because Hell does not open its gates and the damned open their mouths only to curse and because every voice is stifled by the hatred of Satan and the Satans, for the damned are Satans.
• "You shall not practice divination, nor shall you observe dreams."

• CEC § 2115: God can reveal the Future to His prophets or other saints. However, the proper Christian attitude is to entrust the future with confidence into the hands of Providence and to abandon any unhealthy curiosity about it. Lack of foresight can constitute a lack of responsibility.
• CEC 2115 § 2116: All forms of divination must be rejected: recoursing to Satan or demons, evocation of the dead, or other practices wrongly supposed to "unveil" the Future.- Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, interpreting omens and spells, clairvoyance phenomena, recoursing to mediums involve a desire for power over time, over history and ultimately over men as well as a desire to curry favor with hidden powers. They are in contradiction with the honor and respectful, loving fear we owe only to God.

Can one call upon the dead with impunity?

The communion of saints, which unites the living and the dead of Purgatory and Heaven, is a reality. Pope Francis recalled this truth in one of his audiences:

From the Christian perspective, the distinction is no longer made between who is already dead and who is not yet, but between who is in Christ and who is not! This is the determining element, truly decisive for our salvation and for our happiness."

This communion does not, however, legitimize spiritism, which calls upon the spirit of the deceased and other forces that do not come from Heaven, thus from Evil.

Maria Valtorta testifies to this in her Autobiography. It was even one of the experiences where she confronted and triumphed over Satan.

She was settled in Viareggio where her family had retired after her father’s early retirement. A wealthy doctor rented part of the family house for the summer months. The usual tenants had failed to come that year. The doctor requested permission for a young man, who would visit him occasionally, to give consultations. On July 1, 1930, the young Moustapha arrived: a young man of good appearance and morality. He settled in the living room on the ground floor, which later became Maria Valtorta’s bedroom. He asked that the crucifix remain there. He was discreet, calm, courteous and silent.

But the next day, Maria Valtorta felt unwell, a malaise that was not only physical. The air became foul and unbreathable, even in the courtyard. Her mother felt nothing.

Entering the house became difficult and even more so climbing up to the floor where Moustapha and the doctor were: two invisible hands, very large and strong, seemed to push Maria Valtorta back.

She then understood, without seeing anything, that the consultations taking place were spiritism.

Mother and daughter united to summon the tenant to cease these practices. He did so for a short time.

With the suffocation resuming, Maria Valtorta understood that the detested practices were restarting. Her choking only ceased at the invocation of the Crucifix. The exorcism nearly killed the young man, then in trance upstairs.

He eventually left and the doctor subsequently abandoned his occult practices. During that summer, Maria Valtorta had conquered the demon. She would meet him again on her path.

She had to struggle and suffer to To Save the soul of her cousin Giuseppe Belfanti, given over to spiritism and sinking into unbelief.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, following Scripture, condemns all these practices that attempt to appropriate the attributes of God and ultimately revolt Against Him, as Lucifer did. Likewise, the writings of Maria Valtorta highlight that recoursing to occult powers brings the curse of God.

In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"

• Why call the dead? They cannot speak. The saints because charity forbids them: they would too often contradict you. The damned because Hell does not open its gates and the damned open their mouths only to curse and because every voice is stifled by the hatred of Satan and Satans for the damned are Satans.
• Commentary on the evocation of the spirit of Samuel by the necromancer (pythoness) at Saul’s request.
• Necromancy: Jesus addresses this subject at the magician’s cave, a place Judas wanted to visit and says to him: "Son, do not stretch out your hand toward the forbidden fruit. Merely approaching it is imprudence. Do not be curious to know what lies beyond the earth, lest you become a victim of Satanic poison. Flee occultism and what is unexplained. Only one thing must be Homelied with holy faith: God. But whatever is not God and cannot be explained by the forces of reason and cannot be created by human forces, flee it, flee it, lest the sources of wickedness open for you and you realize that you are 'naked' Naked: repulsive in humanity mingled with Satanism.
  Why do you want to amaze with obscure wonders? Amaze by your holiness and let it be bright as something that comes from God. Do not desire to tear the veils separating the living from the dead. Do not disturb the deceased. Listen to them, if they are wise, as long as they are on earth. Venerate them by obeying them even after their death. But do not disturb their second life. Whoever does not obey the voice of the Lord loses the Lord. And the Lord has forbidden occultism, necromancy, Satanism in all its forms. What more do you want to know than what the Word already tells you? What more do you want to do than what your kindness and my power allow you to do? Do not desire sin, but holiness, son."
• The evocation of spirits.
• The Woman of this man says: "He is possessed by necromancy. It seemed to me that it was not my man, but the dead he was evoking, who were upon me".
• Truly I tell you that spirits can come to you. But how? In two ways: by the order of God or by the Violence of man.

In other works of Maria Valtorta

In the Notebooks

• Catechesis of January 4, 1944: "Those who try, by histrionic manifestations, to simulate the Presence of God in them to captivate the naive without true faith. Those who profit from their Satanism. They are cursed, and may they become more and more so! ... These are indeed simulators of God and His saints, worse than simulators, caricaturists of God and His saints - whose representation they give in a sacrilegious way. They are the sons, subjects, ministers of Satan, his dupes. There is not a single word of truth in their mouth, not the slightest light in their Heart. Lies draw them, and those who believe in them, into the deepest abyss they seek. It cannot be otherwise, for the Evil One himself cannot perfectly know the thought of God; and even what he knows of it, he does not say, since he is still the Serpent who sings lying songs to bring ruin where his jealousy sees there could still be a dwelling for the Lord."

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• Saul asks a necromancer of Endor to summon the prophet Samuel.
• King Ahaziah, injured, sends to consult Beelzebub in Acron (Ekron). Elijah warns, stops the messengers and predicts that the wound will be fatal: "Why have you sent messengers to consult Belzébuth, God of Accaron, as if there were no God in Israel to consult? Because of this, you will not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, and surely you will die in your sin."
• "You shall not practice divination, nor shall you observe dreams."
• "If anyone turns to mediums and necromancers, and commits fornication with them, I will turn away my face from him and will exterminate him from among his people."

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Divination and magic

• CEC § 2115: God can reveal the Future to His prophets or other saints. However, the proper Christian attitude is to entrust with confidence the future into the hands of Providence and to abandon any unhealthy curiosity in this regard. Lack of foresight can constitute irresponsibility.
• CEC 2115 § 2116: All forms of divination must be rejected: recoursing to Satan or demons, evocation of the dead or other practices wrongly supposed to "unveil" the Future.- Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, interpretation of omens and spells, clairvoyance phenomena, recoursing to mediums involve a desire for power over time, over history and ultimately over men, along with a desire to curry favor with hidden powers. They contradict the honor and respect, mixed with loving fear, that we owe to God alone.
• CEC 2115 § 2117: All practices of magic or witchcraft by which one claims to domesticate occult powers to put them at one's service and obtain supernatural power over the Neighbor, – even if only to provide health –, are gravely contrary to the virtue of Religion. These practices are even more condemnable when they are accompanied by an intention to harm others or whether or not they invoke the intervention of demons. Wearing amulets is also reprehensible. Spiritism often involves divinatory or magical practices. Therefore, the Church warns the faithful to beware of them. Recourse to so-called traditional medicines does not legitimize either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of others' credulity.

In other sources

On October 13, 1884, Leo XIII witnessed a dialogue between God and Satan. The devil boasts of destroying the Church given some extra time and power. God grants them for a duration of one hundred years.

The pope then sees the century "enveloped in Darkness and the abyss," then a legion of demons scattered throughout the world until Saint Michael the archangel drives them into the abyss.

Following his vision, he composed a prayer to St Michael the Archangel prescribed at the end of each Mass:

"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection Against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do you, Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who roam the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen."

This prayer was later abandoned after Leo XIII, but on Sunday, April 24, 1994, Good Shepherd Sunday, Saint John Paul II during the Regina Caeli prayer invited people to recite it regularly to "obtain help in the battle Against the forces of Darkness and Against the Spirit of this world."

"It is to this same battle that the Book of Revelation, says John Paul II […] Pope Leo XIII certainly had this image in mind when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel to the whole Church […] "Even if today this prayer is no longer recited at the end of the eucharistic celebration, I invite you all not to forget it but to say it to obtain help in the battle Against the forces of Darkness and Against the Spirit of this world."

He was explicitly referring, in this, to chapter 6 of the letter to the Ephesians:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle

Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992).

In the Bible, this often means soothsayers, magicians, ventriloquists, etc.