Theresa Caputo Live! concerns

It has come to my attention that  Theresa Caputo also known as the “Long Island Medium” is appearing at the Monument this Saturday evening in what is billed as “Theresa Caputo Live! The Experience.” In an article in the Rapid City Journal, she claims to have the ability to “channel” spirits and communicate with the dead.  In the same article, she also claims to be a practicing Catholic. 

To be clear, channeling spirits and communicating with the dead is forbidden by God in Sacred Scripture. The Church has always taught us to stay away from the occult because reaching out to “spirits” opens a person to the very real possibility of coming into contact with evil spirits.

In the section of the Catechism on living a moral life in Christ, the Catechism lists various sins connected to each of the ten commandments. Paragraphs 2115-2117 explain the following connection of divination and magic as a rejection of the first commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart”:

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) paragraphs 2115-2117

Divination and magic

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others – even if this were for the sake of restoring their health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

Footnote 48: Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8.

+Bishop Peter Muhich