Occult Subversion of Traditional Catholicism, by Thomas V. Mirus

By Thomas V. Mirus, Catholic Culture, June 05, 2025

Thomas V. Mirus is President of Trinity Communications and Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org, hosts The Catholic Culture Podcast, and co-hosts Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast

In his new book Mysticism, Magic, and Monasteries, Catholic philosopher Sebastian Morello promotes so-called “Hermetic magic”* as an important part of the spiritual revival of Western civilization.

How can a Catholic possibly promote magic as an integral part of the faith? Watch Morello try:

The Western world has always believed in magic. It has always held that curses exist and that they can be placed on people, animals, fungi, and inanimate objects. And the Western world has always held that such curses can be banished by special words, special objects, and special concentration, which in that order it has been content to call “blessings,” “sacramentals,” and “prayer.” In short, even the most orthodox in the West have always believed what the Hermeticist calls the opposing forces of “goetia,” or black magic, and “theurgy,” or sacred magic—though they generally would not put it in such terms.

But Catholics do not and have never believed that the “special words, special objects, and special concentration” involved in sacramentals and prayer have power simply as words, objects, and concentration. Rather, the power is God’s. Insofar as these things occasion the manifestation of a power beyond their own nature, it would be either from God or from an evil spirit—no in-between. …

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