Should I give my kids tickets to tour a haunted building?

[Deidre]

There is a building in my city dubbed as one of the ten most haunted places on earth! The place offers tours year round. My kids (ages 16, 20, and 22) have asked for tour tickets as a gift for Christmas!

Is it sinful for people to tour these types of places in the hopes of seeing some paranormal activity? I’m not sure whether it would be morally wrong for me to provide them with tickets or not.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

A number of cities have such buildings – San Diego is home to the Whaley House. In and of itself, there doesn’t seem to be anything intrinsically wrong with touring a building reputed to be haunted, so long as the tourists are only “walking through” and are not being asked to attempt to contact the alleged spirits through occult means (e.g., attending a seance). Here is some information on what the Church teaches on the possibility of ghosts:

Recommended reading:

What’s the Catholic theory behind such phenomena as ghosts?
Do ghosts exist?

On the other hand, an undue fascination with such phenomena, particularly by teenagers and young adults whose knowledge of the faith may be quite limited, is not something that should be taken lightly. It seems to me that only those adult Catholics who are well-educated in their faith, including in the area of what the Church teaches on supernatural phenomena, should even consider touring a haunted house.

Your adult children have the right to make their own decision about taking such a tour. I can only recommend declining to give them tour tickets as a Christmas gift and cautioning them about the risks involved in indulging their fascination with such phenomena without proper grounding in their Catholic faith. As for your teenager, he or she is still under your authority and you can both educate this child in the risks and let this child know that you believe that taking such a tour is not appropriate for anyone who is not an adult.