What Catholics Need to Know About Magic, Divination and the Occult, by Bradley Shumaker
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By Bradley Shumaker, National Catholic Register, June 7, 2026
Bradley W. Shumaker is an attorney and military veteran. He is an Associate Editor at The Everyman, and his articles have appeared in The Everyman and The Catholic Post.
COMMENTARY: The Church distinguishes harmless entertainment from occult practices and warns against divination, sorcery and attempts to contact the dead.
Magic, sorcery, conjuring and divination involve various strange and ancient practices and terms that can be quite confusing. All of these things fall under the heading of the much larger — and often misunderstood — concepts of superstition and the supernatural.
The Supernatural
In our modern-day secular world and within popular culture, the term “supernatural” often has a non-religious connotation that, to some people, is associated primarily with ghosts and hauntings. The truth, however, is much more profound. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) clarifies that the supernatural is that which surpasses “the power of created beings.” It teaches that the supernatural world exists as a result of God’s gracious initiative and further instructs that, for Christians, our vocation to eternal life is itself supernatural. …
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June 11, 2026
June 11, 2026
June 11, 2026