Wandering spirits, ghosts, exorcism?

[ble]

I was taught that after you die, that your soul is judged right away and you go to one of three places: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. If that’s the case, why is that there are so many wandering ghosts and haunted house around the world?

I read a biography of Padre Pio where he mentioned he saw a spirit of a monk sweeping the altar on some occassions. He learned that the spirit is working off his sins in Purgatory and wanted Padre Pio to say a Mass for him. After saying the Mass, Padre Pio saw the spirit no more. Does this mean that souls can wander the world? I know the bio is just a private revelation but it explains a lot to me.

What about ghosts and mean spirits in haunted houses around the world? There is a haunted house that I drove by to Mass each Sunday that no one can live in without running out to get away in the night. Its an abandon house where a husband killed his wife and then commit suicide. Everyone who moved in talks about hearing loud arguments in the house at night.

Usually exorcism is used when it is an evil spirit, as Jesus cast out many evil spirits during his ministry. Is there such a thing as a spirit haunting that is not evil? ie. I read a documentary of a lady who travel to California to marry her fiance in the past. She died along the way and they buried her in the desert in her wedding gown. She is often seen by many travelers, wandering the area she is buried, complete in her wedding gown. Could her soul not yet found rest in the Lord?

Thank you for any insight. These questions are baffling to me! My apology if it posted in the wrong forum.

Warmest regards,
-Ben

 

[evelynicholson]

I think this is not an area that the Church seems happy with people speculating about as things could easily get out of control and then you would have impressionable people saying all sorts of hysterical things and leading people into error.
I have, however had two inexplicable experiences. In the seventies I had a dream where I saw all my family on a sea wall eating ice creams. My mother was telling my little sister that Dad had died and she was crying. I woke up very upset and rang my father and he was fine so I breathed a sigh of relief. Several weeks later, he died suddenly of a heart attack. On the third day afterwards, tired of all the crying and being in the house, my brother in law suggested we go for a long drive into the country, On the way back he drove off to a resort to have a bracing walk by the sea and dripped my mother and sisters off in town and I went with the car to park it. When I returned, I saw the same scene as in my dream and became all shivery. I have never been able to account for it.Nevertheless I was prepared for what would happen. My mother had to be sedated and my sisters too, and I was the only one who was prepared and able to cope and do the arrangements. I think I was warned by God.
2. Several years later, (I am an opera singer by profession) I was asked if I would sing at a benefit for a leading cancer charity and did so. After the concert a lady came up to me from the audience and said a slightly built man had been standing next to me, with little hair, and asked who he was. I had not the faintest idea. I thoughperhaps she had just imagined it, and then last week a friend told my sister she had seen him too and identified him from a picture as a dear family friend recently died of cancer! He was a very devout man, and I would have thought he would have gone straight to heaven, but neither of these women knew him in life, and he was only identified from a photo.I felt him very close to me, but could not see him myself. Still it is good to know that he had come to the concert for the charity which cared for him… I have to admit I am spooked, but not disturbed. He was a good man. So perhaps yes these spirits can appear,but I was very sceptical about such things and still cannot explain them. I think a priest specialising in such phenomena would be the best person to reply.Afterall it proves life after death in a very positive way.

 

[thistle]

I was taught that after you die, that your soul is judged right away and you go to one of three places: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. If that’s the case, why is that there are so many wandering ghosts and haunted house around the world?

I read a biography of Padre Pio where he mentioned he saw a spirit of a monk sweeping the altar on some occassions. He learned that the spirit is working off his sins in Purgatory and wanted Padre Pio to say a Mass for him. After saying the Mass, Padre Pio saw the spirit no more. Does this mean that souls can wander the world? I know the bio is just a private revelation but it explains a lot to me.

What about ghosts and mean spirits in haunted houses around the world? There is a haunted house that I drove by to Mass each Sunday that no one can live in without running out to get away in the night. Its an abandon house where a husband killed his wife and then commit suicide. Everyone who moved in talks about hearing loud arguments in the house at night.

Usually exorcism is used when it is an evil spirit, as Jesus cast out many evil spirits during his ministry. Is there such a thing as a spirit haunting that is not evil? ie. I read a documentary of a lady who travel to California to marry her fiance in the past. She died along the way and they buried her in the desert in her wedding gown. She is often seen by many travelers, wandering the area she is buried, complete in her wedding gown. Could her soul not yet found rest in the Lord?

Thank you for any insight. These questions are baffling to me! My apology if it posted in the wrong forum.

Warmest regards,
-Ben

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=68370

 

[puzzleannie]

I was taught that after you die, that your soul is judged right away and you go to one of three places: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. If that’s the case, why is that there are so many wandering ghosts and haunted house around the world?

I -Ben

there is no proof, none whatever, except anecdotal evidence from more or less reliable “witnesses” of any of these phenomena such as ghosts and haunted houses. Evil spirits are demons, fallen angels, they are not the souls of the dead and it is against them that the Church rite of exorcism is used. So there is simply no need to justify the doctrine of purgatory and judgement on such a basis.

 

[exoflare]

It’s not taught that Purgatory is limited to a specific “place”. For all we know it could be right here on earth. There is so much room to speculate I wouldn’t know where to begin.

 

[guanophore]

I was taught that after you die, that your soul is judged right away and you go to one of three places: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. If that’s the case, why is that there are so many wandering ghosts and haunted house around the world?

I was taught this too, but have since learned that I may be in error. Remember how Samuel appeared to Saul? Remember how, after Jesus was resurrected many of the believers came out of their graves and were seen about the city?

Matt 27:52-53

52 The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep in death were raised [to life];

53 And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

I read a biography of Padre Pio where he mentioned he saw a spirit of a monk sweeping the altar on some occassions. He learned that the spirit is working off his sins in Purgatory and wanted Padre Pio to say a Mass for him. After saying the Mass, Padre Pio saw the spirit no more. Does this mean that souls can wander the world? I know the bio is just a private revelation but it explains a lot to me.

There have been many appearances of the saints and the Blessed Mother

What about ghosts and mean spirits in haunted houses around the world? There is a haunted house that I drove by to Mass each Sunday that no one can live in without running out to get away in the night. Its an abandon house where a husband killed his wife and then commit suicide. Everyone who moved in talks about hearing loud arguments in the house at night.?

I believe that these are manifestations of demons, for the most part.

Usually exorcism is used when it is an evil spirit, as Jesus cast out many evil spirits during his ministry. Is there such a thing as a spirit haunting that is not evil?/QUOTE]

I don’t know that it would be called a “haunting”. Acts 16:9-10
9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Acts 12:14-15
15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.”
I am not really sure, either, but it seems clear that the veil is sometimes very thin.

I

 

[mikew262]

It’s not taught that Purgatory is limited to a specific “place”. For all we know it could be right here on earth. There is so much room to speculate I wouldn’t know where to begin.

True. Perhaps ghost sightings are indeed souls in Purgatory.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Matthew 14:26
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

Mark 6:49
but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,

Luke 24:37
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

Luke 24:39
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

John 11:17 (King James Version)
Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

There was a belief that one’s ghost hung around for three days looking for a possiblity of re-entering the body. Jesus waited for the fifth day to prove beyond doubt that he has the power of life.