belief in ghosts

https://uscatholic.org/articles/201310/paranormal-activity-do-catholics-believe-in-ghosts/

this is a good article that covers both the official & non-official teachings of the church.

i summarize this long article as follows:

>official teaching: "all forms of DIVINATION are to be REJECTED" including "recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead, or other practices falsely supposed to 'UNVEIL' the FUTURE" e.g. consulting palm readers, interpreting omens, an interest in clairvoyance -- "all conceal a desire for POWER over time, history, & in the last analysis, over human beings." & all "contradict the HONOR, RESPECT, & LOVING FEAR that we owe to God alone." -- Catechism of the Catholic Church

--"There is NO doctrinal or moral practice with respect to ghosts or apparitions." -- Lawrence Cunningham, Professor Emeritus of Theology, University of Notre Dame

--"Christianity believes that God may, & sometimes does, PERMIT a DEPARTED SOUL to appear in visible form to people on earth... Their purpose may be to teach, or want, or request some favor [from] the living." -- The modern Catholic dictionary

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a. ghosts = spirits of the dead (source: peter kreeft, philosophy professor at Boston college)

1. from purgatory -- "sad, wispy" (delicate, faint); need to learn many painful lessons about their past life on earth

2. from hell --  "malicious & deceptive"; likely the ones who respond to conjuring & seances 

3. from heaven -- "bright, happy" spirits of family & friends, esp spouses who appear unbidden, at God's will, not ours, with messages of HOPE & LOVE.

sum: "these ghosts return 'for the sake of the living, to tell us all is WELL."

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b. devil

apologia (term for poltergeist visitations in the 17-18th c) = "the disturbances universally ascribed to the actions of the devil... a diabolic visitation was suggestive of an unholy familiarly with witchcraft & sorcery." (source: fr. hubert thurson, sj -- UK 1930s)

-- "It was not a graceful presence. This was creepy." -- Fr. Lawrence Hennessey, Systematic Theology professor of St. Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary

-- Fr. John Nicola (1960s) -- adviser to the movie The ExorcistI, author of Diabolical possessions & exorcisms experienced "manifestations" including the ink in his pen would suddenly drop to nothing