Was: witchcraft/divination-- help for friend

[Ravyn_Guiliani]

The original post asking for scriptural help is here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=203030

My friend Maura is a strega and considers herself Catholic.
She has been walking the edge of Catholicism for a few years practicing old Italian Witchcraft much the same way it is mixed with it in Mexico and Cuba/Haiti. Now she is considering dropping her Catholic parts entirely. She says she is a ‘religious mercenary’ and that Christianity is not getting her anywhere and she is spiritually restless. I have tried to encourage her to look deeper, pray, maybe find a special devotion, but she says she is tired of the suffering and negativity in Christianity (!?) She says she is finding no light or hope at Church. I don’t know what to say to her anymore. She says if Jesus does not ‘speak’ to her she will find someone else to talk to.

 

[ChangingHeart]

The original post asking for scriptural help is here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=203030

My friend Maura is a strega and considers herself Catholic.
She has been walking the edge of Catholicism for a few years practicing old Italian Witchcraft much the same way it is mixed with it in Mexico and Cuba/Haiti. Now she is considering dropping her Catholic parts entirely. She says she is a ‘religious mercenary’ and that Christianity is not getting her anywhere and she is spiritually restless. I have tried to encourage her to look deeper, pray, maybe find a special devotion, but she says she is tired of the suffering and negativity in Christianity (!?) She says she is finding no light or hope at Church. I don’t know what to say to her anymore. She says if Jesus does not ‘speak’ to her she will find someone else to talk to.

Find her a good Catholic potential boyfriend who claims that he’s interested in her but is only willing to date other Catholics. Make sure he’s really good looking. Rich, popular, drives a nice car, whatever she likes. That might bring her back to the faith.

 

[Ravyn_Guiliani]

the boyfriend might backfire since she is already married.

I have tried to talk to her from my own experience, the problem is she throws my old words back in my face—she remembers when I had the same doubts and I can’t really tell her anything that is not subjective now. It does not sway her to go all the way Catholic—it only persuades her that she was ok mixing Stregheria and Catholicism like an Italian voodoo. She claims she does not, has not, have/had any positive experiences with Christianity. I am at a loss. And she is completely miserable in this confusion.

 

[ElizabethPH]

Nothing’s working; pray for her. What she is involved in is only seperating her more from the Church; eventually she will be lost. There is no way you can mix our beliefs up the way she does with evil…no wonder she is so confused. She needs to see a priest.

 

[Ravyn_Guiliani]

her husband does not believe actively in much of anything which I think may be part of the problem–she is spiritually lonely—you know? Yes I can loan her my book. So are you a Christian Occultist? (if you are how does that work out for you?)

 

[ElizabethPH]

You might find reading the Catechism more helpful:

2117 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.

and

1852 There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”