Colm Fitzpatrick
Questions of Faith
In today’s world, plenty of people have lucky charms; it might be a football that their father gave them when they were a child; a special pen that is always used in exams; or a lucky coin that is kept in one’s wallet or purse. The belief that objects or practices have certain intrinsic powers is known as ‘superstition’ – and is something the Church explicitly forbids.
“Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g. when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary.
“To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition” (CCC 2111).
The problem with having charms is that one replaces God with an irrational faith towards material objects which have no power at all. In believing that items possess some sort of magical essence undermines God’s authority and is akin to idolatry.
“Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to Faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honours and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc.” (CCC 2113).
Personal objects
Does this mean that Catholics can’t have personal objects which they deem lucky? The answer is nuanced, because it depends on how the person perceives the effect of the object. Take John, for example; John always wears the same footwear when he’s driving. He developed this practice after years of failing his driving test, eventually succeeding with the shoes he wears today.
There is no doubt that John would be committing idolatry if he were to say that the shoes have mystical powers that somehow make him a more capable driver. However, there would be no theological problem in John always wearing said shoes if he replied when questioned about this habit that they make him feel more comfortable behind a wheel of a car, and that’s just how he is psychologically wired.
Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to Faith”
To condense this dilemma down: sin only arises when one imparts a divine or spiritual quality into a material item or practice. This is why the Church also condemns fortune-telling or palm reading.
“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 (CCC 2117).
