(English accent) Would you like to hear a ghost story?
Hi my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
Why would we be so open to the idea of ghosts?
We're talking about ghosts, there are three, as Catholics,
we need to have three caveats.
Number one: Are there any Catholic doctrines that establish the existence and the communication
of ghosts?
No explicit Catholic doctrines.
In fact, there are some big deal saints who, kind of, um,
shut down the idea that you can communicate with ghosts.
But other big deal saints who said, "Yeah, that's a real thing.
It's possible."
Number two, second caveat: In communication with ghosts, no, we're absolutely
prohibited in Scripture and in the Bible to have any kind of communication with ghosts.
That's what they call the sin of necromancy.
And it's really, really clearly forbidden.
What about praying to the saints?
Great question. Another video, some other time.
OK, caveat number three is this: There's a huge difference, and we need to establish
this difference, between the ghostly and the demonic because there exists a demonic reality,
that God made good angels, that have rebelled against him, they've fallen.
And those demons, those fallen angels, they're not interested in our good.
They're only interested in our destruction and that's actually one of the ways you can
discern between the ghostly and the demonic.
Could there be ghosts?
I'll say this: Yeah, it's probably pretty legit.
Here's some reasons.
One is because it fits into our Catholic theology.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that there's more to this world than just the material world.
There's actually a spiritual world.
In fact, you are not simply material, you are also spiritual; you have a body and a soul, together.
At death, what happens?
Well, the body and soul separate, right?
And the soul, which is immortal, goes to what we call the particular judgment and the result
of the particular judgment is either you go to heaven, go to purgatory, or you
go to hell.
So it's either the Church Triumphant in heaven, the Church Suffering in purgatory,
or hell.
Also, Scripture indicates, or at least implies, or in some kind of way reveals that ghosts
would exist.
1 Samuel 28 where King Saul goes to the witch of Endor to conjure up the soul, or the ghost,
of the prophet Samuel and it actually happens.
Now, Saul shouldn't have done that.
Remember Theresa Caputo.
Don't do the seances, don't communicate with the dead.
BUT, but is it possible, well Scripture points out yeah in some way, in some way, there exists
some kind of contact between that world and this world.
But here's the big question: Why would God allow that?
Like, if that's the case, why would God allow that?
Well, first we have to know this: That souls don't, or ghosts don't live on
earth, I guess.
Souls either dwell in three places: They dwell in heaven,
in purgatory, or in hell.
It can manifest itself in this plane of reality, in our world, but again, the question is this:
Why would God allow that to happen?
I'll say for at least one reason: Because these souls
who manifest themselves in this world to us, are from a very specific place.
They are from the Church Suffering, from purgatory, and what are they doing?
They are manifesting themselves to us on earth.
What are we?
We're the Church Militant.
In fact—militant, don't think, well, we have weapons; well, actually we do have weapons, they are
spiritual weapons—but the reality is this:
That we're the Church Militant, the Church on earth is the Church in action, the Church
that's doing something for the Kingdom of God.
Not just for the Kingdom of God that we see on this earth, but also for our brothers and
sisters who are suffering in purgatory.
I will say this.
I will maintain this: That virtually every time there's some kind
of manifestation of the ghostly, those are souls that are in purgatory who are manifesting
themselves to the Church Militant.
The Church Suffering manifesting themselves to the Church Militant in order so that you
and I can pray for them.
They're not doing it to scare us, unless they're demonic.
That's not the same thing as a ghost.
They''re not doing this to startle us, to frighten us, to entertain us.
They're doing this to get our attention so that you and I, as the Church Militant, can
pray for the Church Suffering.
Speaking of this, I had the opportunity to speak with an exorcist a little while back.
He shared some of his experiences with the Church Suffering in ghostly form.
Here's an example: He got this phone call from the Abbess, or
the Mother Superior of a religious community, and she said, "Father, um, every morning,
in our sewing room, the whole place is just kind of all messed up.
All the cloths are on the floor and the stuff is kind of like—the lights are on and this
kind of thing and there's only one other nun who has the key, and her name is Sister Rita.
And Sister Rita is the only nun who has the key."
So the priest says, "Well, have you checked with Sister Rita?
Is she going in there and messing stuff up?
Is she a little upset?"
"No, Sister Rita died a couple weeks ago."
"OK, the only other—who else has a key?"
"Well, I have a key," Mother Superior says.
And he says, "OK, Mother Superior.
Are you, um, have some late night (click-click) kicking back on Grandpa's cough medicine kind
of thing?"
And she's like, "No, of course not, Father."
And he's like, "OK, let's check this out.
Is anything else happening there?"
She says, "Well, yeah.
This whole wing where the sewing room is, for years, the lights turn on and off at random
times.
The faucets turn completely on, completely off at random times, and this has been going
on for a while."
And he says, "How long has this been going on?"
And she says, "Well, we have a nun here who has been a nun here for 85 years.
She's been a nun for 85 years."
And they tracked it back and these things have been going on since like 1889 or something
like this.
Like a LONG time.
And he's like, "You're just calling me NOW about this?"
And she says, "Well, because they kind of ramped up, you know.
Not just with the faucets, and with the lights, and now also with the sewing room and some
other things."
And he says, "Is there anything new or special going on?"
She said, "Yeah."
she said, "We're planning on tearing down this wing of the convent."
He said, "OK, that makes sense."
"Well, why?"
"Because this is, it sounds like, ghostly.
This person has been trying to get your attention so you can pray for this person, and you haven't
done it."
Now, with the demolition of that wing, how will they get your attention?
That kind of a thing, right?
He says, "Here's what I want you to do.
There's a neighboring monastery.
Would you contact the abbot of the monastery, the head of that monastery, and arrange for
thirty Masses to be celebrated in thirty days for whatever intention of this person who
is trying to get your attention.
"OK, fine." A couple days later, he gets a call from the
abbot of the monastery this time.
And the abbot says, "Father, I'm not going back there."
He says, "How come?
What happened?"
"Well, I went into the room, set up Mass and everything, and when I got to the Our Father,
the part of the prayer where it says, 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us', the candles on the altar just (poof), went out."
And the priest was like, "OK, well Father was there, was there a breeze?"
Like, "No." "Was there someone playing a trick on you,
you know blowing out the candles?"
"No Father, not at all.
But I'm not going back.
That freaked me out."
And the priest basically said, the exorcist said, "Listen, Father, you got to go back
or I'll send someone with some guts to go back and help you out."
"Fine."
So he sends some other monks and they celebrate Masses for the next 29 days.
For the next 29 days, every time they get to that place of the Mass, the candles went out.
The idea is that here's some kind of unforgiveness that was happening.
This person, in the Church Suffering, in purgatory, was, had to work out, with God's grace, some
kind of unforgiveness.
So these Masses were being celebrated for the unforgiveness this person was holding
onto.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Finally, on the 30th day, the 30th Mass, they make it through the entire Our Father and
the candles remain lit and intact, until one moment, when the priest said, "Let us now
offer one another a sign of Christ's peace," then candles (poof) just went out.
And they took that as a sign that, OK, that person, that soul in purgatory, is now at
peace and is entering into God's glory in heaven.
So, there could be such things as ghosts, but the reason they exist, and again, very
different from demons, the very reason they exist and the reason why God allows them to
manifest themselves to us, is so that we can not just be entertained by them, not just
can be communicating with them—don't do that—not be scared by them, but to pray for
them.
They are the Church Suffering.
We are the Church Militant.
So let's get militant
about praying for our brothers and sisters who are in need of our prayers, whether they
manifest themselves to us or not.
Pray for those souls in purgatory.
Let's dedicate this Year of Mercy to one of those things being praying for those who have
died.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God bless.