Should psychics be hired to help solve crimes?

[aquinasadmirer]

My wife and I were watching a TV program where a couple hired a psychic to see if their kidnapped child was okay. They also wanted to see if they could learn anything more about the crime.

I read somewhere that in certain cases this is okay. That is, when the psychic is using certain abilities to help mankind, it is morally licit. This seemed problematic. I was having a difficult time articulating what the problem was…

Is it true that this okay? Could you help?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

While it is true that it is possible that a person might be given information otherwise unknowable to him by natural means and might licitly use that information to help solve a crime, that is not what is going on in this circumstance. Here, someone who purports to be psychic is being hired to *seek out *information otherwise unknowable to him by natural means. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone (CCC 2116).

In other words, if someone is supernaturally given information he has not sought out, it is generally permissible to use it for the benefit of others, assuming there is just cause to do so (such as solving a crime). But if someone is deliberately seeking out occult contact with the supernatural realm – or is hiring someone else to do it for him – that is forbidden by the Church.

Recommended reading:

Was Padre Pio a psychic?
Is it a sin to be fey?
You Can Trust Me, I’m a Psychic by Mark P. Shea