Why does the church not accept the idea of reincarnation?

[PsychoRainbow]

Why?

 

[Fr.Eric_Filmer]

Let us begin this examination with a basic overview of Catholic teachings which pertain to the subject at hand. Catholics believe that each person is a unique union of soul and body, and that death is just a temporary separation. When we pass from this life, our souls are judged and our final destination will be either heaven (including the possibility of first going through purgatory for those in need of such cleansing) or hell. At the end of time, there will be the resurrection of the dead in which our souls are reunited with our bodies (having been restored and empowered for immortal life by God).

If the human identity of a person is a unique union of a soul with a specific body, then one’s soul cannot be shared by other bodies at different times (which is what reincarnation suggests). Moreover, Catholic doctrines are drawn from the from the Deposit of Faith, referring to what God has revealed to us through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (as officially defined by the Magisterium). In the following statement, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how the concept of reincarnation is contrary to the doctrinal teachings of the Church (including a Bible quote from the Letter to the Hebrews):

1013: Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When “the single course of our earthly life” (Lumen Gentium, 48, #3) is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives: “It is appointed for men to die once” (Hebrews 9:27). There is no “reincarnation” after death.

The concept of reincarnation is also contrary to what Catholics believe about salvation through Christ. In 1992 the Holy See’s International Theological Commission (with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, acting as president) made the following statement about reincarnation:

…the fundamental error is in the rejection of the Christian doctrine of salvation. For the reincarnationist the soul is its own saviour by its own efforts. Its soteriology is one of autoredemption, which is diametrically opposed to the heteroredemption of Christian soteriology. In fact, if such a heteroredemption is suppressed, any talk of Christ the Redeemer is null and void. The nub of New Testament soteriology is contained in the following words: “This was his will and pleasure in order that the glory of his gracious gift, so graciously conferred on us in his Beloved, might resound to his praise. In Christ our release is secured and our sins forgiven through the shedding of his blood. In the richness of his grace God has lavished on us all wisdom and insight” (Eph 1:6-8). The whole doctrine concerning Church, sacraments and grace stands or falls on this central point. The serious nature of the doctrines involved here is thus evident, and it can readily be understood why the Church’s magisterium has rejected the system we have been discussing, categorizing it as a theosophism. (Some Current Questions in Eschatology, 9.3)

For the complete text of the International Theological Commission concerning “The Irrepeatability and Singleness of Human Life: The Problem of Reincarnation”, please consult Chapter 9 of Some Current Questions in Eschatology.

For a more detailed presentation on what the Church teaches concerning the union of the soul and body, please consult this section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

For Catholic Answers’ response to the biblical claims made by certain reincarnationists, please read the following tract: Reincarnation. Catholic Answers also addresses this topic in its Quick Questions section: Does the Bible Teach Reincarnation?.

And finally, I also refer you to Fr. Michael Kerper’s Can Catholics Believe in Reincarnation?