A really nice family from the parish invited me over to dinner. As I entered the house, the couple's young son grabbed my hand and led me to the table. He was very excited. As we sat down, the boy's father said, "Who would like to lead the prayer before dinner?" The youngster's hand shot up and his dad said, "OK, son, but remember, pray like you have heard Mom or Dad pray." The son nodded solemnly and bowed his head saying, "Oh Lord, why did we ever invite Fr. Joe over tonight?" If it is any consolation, the food was really good.

Dear Father Joe:
My friend believes in Wicca because it honors nature. I think I can believe in Wicca, too, and still be Catholic. My mom says "no." What do you think?

What do I think? What I think isn't really worth much. I mean, come on, I'm 31 years old, right? Whenever someone asks me what I think about something, this is what comes to mind. If I give you my opinion formed from my experiences, you have gained little, if anything at all. Why am I saying all this? Because this attitude goes right to the heart of the answer to your question. Here is what I mean.

The Catholic Church is a 2,000-year-old institution that is blessed by God in a special way to lead people to and in Christ. In those 2,000 years, we have engaged every culture that has existed during this time. We have done beautiful things, made terrible mistakes and we have learned much. Because of this, I submit myself to the wisdom of the Catholic Church. I understand that I am not in charge. I understand that in order to be Christ-like, I need to humble myself and not seek my own power.

Why am I saying this if the question is about witchcraft? Because the issue of humility and submission are two of the places where witchcraft is an offense against God. Let's take it apart.

First of all, let's define witchcraft. When I say witchcraft, I am talking about the practice of Wiccans and other things like using Ouija boards, consulting horoscopes, going to fortunetellers, etc., OK? The Church, without exception, condemns all of these practices. Look at your catechism, sections 2115-2117.

See, the problem is, in these practices, we take God's job away from Him. We try to claim God's power over the future. For example, in trying to predict our future or have someone predict it for us, we are trying to take control over something that is not ours to control! You are God's own precious possession and all you and I need to know about the future is that God is there. The future is not ours to know or control. It is God's.

In casting spells, we run into the problem of trying to manipulate the spirit world. You cast spells and do different things to get what you want. This is not how we deal with God. God is in charge. He is not manipulated and we can't "force His hand." As Christians, we should not seek to be in charge, we should try to humble ourselves and be under God's authority.

Now, let's talk turkey. Witchcraft exposes us to a dangerous element of the spirit world. For some reason, all kinds of TV shows and movies have popped up which try to make witchcraft look fun, acceptable, harmless or even good. This is not the case.

Witchcraft is a practice which is dangerous and alienates us from God. We have to understand something very important and basic to our faith: as Catholics, heck, even as Christians, we believe that there are two beings out there that want us with them. One of them is God who loves us and desires great things for us (John 10:10). The other is the devil and he wants us dead (I Peter 5:8).

Whether we believe it or not, witchcraft brings contact with evil spirits. They may appear to be good, or even do nice things, but the problem is they only want our deaths. That is why I am being more serious in this article than usual. I don't want anyone reading this to get mixed up in it.

Please understand witchcraft is not "contacting God in a different way." God has strictly forbidden the practice. Witchcraft is not harmless or good, it is using evil spirits who appear to be good to get what we want, and that is not holy. If you are engaging in practices of witchcraft, I urge you to step away from them and pray for help. See your priest and ask him for guidance.

God loves us. We can trust Him to give us what we need and help us discover what we want. God is in charge of the future and, by humbly placing ourselves in His hands, we don't need special powers from Wiccan practices and we don't need to know the future. All we need to know is this: God who loves us is in control.

Enjoy another day in God's presence!

Originally Published: September 2001