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THE SPIRIT WORLD1
By^the BishopSof Salford
I
The Church of Christ—established by her Divine
Founder for the purpose of teaching mankind those
truths in both the intellectual and the moral order
which are to lead them to the fulfilment of the end
for which they were created and to their eternal
happiness hereafter—has never ceased on the one
hand to propound full and satisfying systems of truth
on all questions concerning man’s relation to his
Maker and all that affects his own destiny; and on
the other to reprobate and condemn 'those many
false systems, religious, ethical, or social, which have
arisen in all ages from the very days of the Apostles
to our own. Many of these systems have contained,
indeed, a certain admixture of truths, or at least half
truths, which have rendered them the more insidious
and the more dangerous, as even earnest believers
may be the more easily led away into false systems
by the elements of good which appear therein, so
that they may deceive, as Christ warned us, “ even the
Elect.”2
Not unfrequently systems of this character have
been denominated by names ending in “ ism,” and
there are cases where such an ending, attached to a
term which in itself may be unobjectionable; acts as a
kind of danger signal that the complex of teachings
1 A Pastoral Letter, 1912.
2 Mark xiii. 22.
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which it involves may contain errors of a dangerous and
a pernicious character. Thus whilst the Church may
approve and even maintain certain of the teachings
appropriated by such systems; yet. as she is bound
by her very nature to condemn the errors which are
mixed up with them, so is it her duty to reprobate
these systems as a whole and to warn her children
from attaching themselves to them and becoming
disciples or partisans of the schools which teach
them.
Modern Errors
A few recent examples will make our meaning
clear. It is well known to all, that within recent
years our present Holy Father, Pope Pius X., has
condemned with no uncertain voice and with
Apostolic severity that religious system known as
“Modernism.” Now, we are fully aware that so far
from reprobating or discouraging modern progress of
any kind, whether intellectual, political, or social, the
Church in all ages has blessed and fostered all true
progress and development. Thus she took under her
fostering wing the advancement of literature and the
fine arts in the Middle Ages. The theological and
philosophical syntheses of Thomas Aquinas, so novel
to his contemporaries1; the mighty creations of
Dante, of Raphael, and Michelangelo; the heroic
discoveries of Christopher Columbus, received the
fulness of her patronage and blessing. Similarly, at
the close of the Middle Ages, the Church fostered and
encouraged the then modern revival of ancient
classical learning, known as the Renascence, whilst at
the same time severely condemning and checking the
1 “To his contemporaries the novelty of his work was its character
istic. His first early biographer, William de Tocco, speaks of his
‘new and clear method of deciding questions’; of his ‘new
opinions,’ ‘new projects,’ ‘new ideas.’”—W. Ward, Life of Cardinal
Newman, vol. i. p. 435.
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pernicious neopaganism, the outcome of the excess to
which that revival led, and which vitiated so much of
its action on the mind and morals of Europe.1 Yet
more strikingly did she hail that art, so thoroughly
Catholic in its inception, the art of printing, whose
earliest beginnings she blessed and even enriched
with copious indulgences.2 In our own days, she has
incorporated into her Ritual special blessings for
such modern inventions as the railway, textile
machinery, the telegraph, the motor, and even
the aeroplane. Thus the Church bestows her
approval and benediction on all that is good and
useful in modern progress and enlightenment, whilst
she condemns—-as she is obliged to do—those
dangerous philosophical and theological errors which
have been mixed up with so much of modern
criticism and methods, and are collectively known
under the title of “ Modernism.” It is not, therefore,
what is “ modern ” as such that falls under her ban,
but what is “ modernistic.”
The system known as “ Socialism ” is another
example of what we mean. So far from the Church
being opposed to social reform, it is she who from
her beginning has been the pioneer in all the social
improvements of mankind’s lot. The very adjective
“social” implies “society,” and society itself, as
indicating the brotherhood of mankind under the
fatherhood of God and the equality before God of
all men, “whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or
free,” 3 is the direct creation of the teachings of our
Lord and His Apostles, and most conspicuously of the
great Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul.4 The first
result of this entire revolution in the conception of
mankind was the gradual but sure extinction of
ancient slavery and of later serfdom, brought about
1 See Pastor, History of the Popes.
2 See The Catholic Church and the Printing Press, C.T. S., Jd.
3 i Cor. xii. 13.
4 See his Epistle to Philemon.
*
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by the constant pressure of the Church, and especially
of the Holy See, from the days of the Apostles to the
final emancipation of the slaves of Brazil during the
reign and at the solicitation of Leo XIII. The
mention of the name of this great Pontiff cannot but
recall those magnificent Encyclicals1 on the rights of
labour, on the conditions of the working classes, and
on all the burning social questions of the day, forming
a perfect and coherent code of sound teaching, based
upon the principles of Christian doctrine, which will
be found eventually to supply the only true and real
basis for a constructive sociology capable of obviating
and curing the manifold evils and miseries of present
social conditions. But that system which has arro
gated to itself the title of “ Socialism,” based as it is
on principles quite other than those of Christ and His
Church—having for its final goal exclusively man’s
temporal instead of his eternal welfare, and thus
radically subordinating what is primary to what is
secondary—is as such condemned by the Church,
even whilst it advocates a number of practical reforms
which merit her approval and blessing. And the
Church’s wisdom in this discrimination is, alas, only
too emphatically proved by the sad fact, to which
our parochial clergy bear abundant witness, that
our young men, especially among the working classes,
who are beguiled into joining the Socialistic ranks,
invariably end by abandoning the Church and even
giving up Christianity. Here, again, the Church
disapproves not of what is “ social,” but of what is
“ socialistic.”
Spiritualism
The third case to which we would refer, and con
cerning which we shall speak at more length, is the
movement known as “Spiritualism” or “Spiritism.”
The Catholic Church at all times is chiefly concerned
1 See The Pope and the People, C.T.S.
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with the spiritual side of man and his destiny, with
the future life beyond the grave, and with the
existence and operation of spiritual beings, whether
good or bad. Hence we might justly say that the
Catholic Church beyond all other religious systems
is a “Spiritualist” organization. But, as in the case
of Modernism and Socialism, an otherwise unobjec
tionable or even desirable epithet has been appro
priated by an entirely different and even hostile
system of teaching and practice, which is nowadays
familiar to everybody under the above-quoted titles.
The history of this remarkable movement is in
teresting. The scepticism engendered by the French
philosophers and encyclopaedists at the close of the
eighteenth century, followed by the hasty generaliza
tions and arrogant assertions of so many students of
physical science in the early part of the nineteenth,
led to the growth and wide diffusion of what is known
as “ Materialism,” which long held sway in both scien
tific and popular literature, as well as in many of
the universities. Because the anatomist and ' the
biologist in dissecting the animal body, or in studyi°g germs beneath the microscope, were unable to
find any trace of an immaterial or spiritual sub
stance ; because the astronomer, the physicist, and
the chemist, in investigating the regions of space or
analysing matter into its component elements, found
no trace of anything outside of matter to respond
to their tests ; because the philosopher, the historian,
the economist considered that the whole story of the
evolution of the universe allowed no place for the
action , of a spiritual First Cause or the agency of
subordinate and secondary spiritual beings; so the
existence of human souls, of pure spiritual beings,
of a God as the Supreme Spirit, were either roundly
denied, or at best declared to be, in the “ Agnostic ”
teaching, unknown and unknowable. There was a
time when Materialism seemed to threaten to absorb
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the world of science and thought. But the reaction
inevitably came. Pure Materialism is so essentially
contrary to the profoundest instincts of the human
race and to the most venerable and persistent tradi
tional beliefs of every age and race, that the convic
tion of the existence and power of spiritual agencies
forced its way back into men’s minds. An old Latin
poet declared, in the form of a homely proverb, “ You
may drive out nature with a pitchfork, but she will
always return.”1 And so human nature reasserted
its innate and traditional belief in the supersensible
or spiritual by a strong and even violent reaction.
For as all reactions are apt to be violent and to
swing to extremes, so have we experienced of late
years an anti-materialist reaction in the form of an
elaborate and extravagant Spiritualism, permeating
all classes and exercising an ever-growing and, as we
believe, pernicious influence. It is not certain indi
vidual truths, which Spiritualism teaches quite in
accordance with Christian doctrine—such as the
existence of the human soul, its life after death, the
agency of disembodied spirits, the possibility of their
communicating with us—but, as in the cases of
.Modernism and Socialism, the system as a whole,
with all its concomitant errors and abuses, that the
Catholic Church reprobates. Once again we may
say the Church disapproves, not what is “ spiritual,”
but what is “spiritualistic.” And again it must be
plainly stated that Catholics who give themselves up
to spiritualistic beliefs and practices invariably make
shipwreck of their faith, unless they are happily rescued
in time and taught to see the danger of their position.
There is the less excuse for Catholics falling into
the power of Spiritism, inasmuch as the teachings
of their own faith supply them with the most perfect,
the most complete, the most logical, and the most
satisfying system of doctrine with reference to the
1 “ Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret.”—Horace.
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world of Spirit and all that it implies in itself and in
its relation to man’s life and destiny.
II
The Teaching
of the
Church
What then is the Catholic doctrine on these
momentous topics? We shall endeavour as briefly
as possible to set forth this teaching.
God the Supreme Being, existing of Himself and
necessarily existing from all eternity, Himself pure
and absolute Spirit, is by His own infinite power and
freewill the Creator of all that exists, whether spiritual
or material. His creation is thus of a double nature,
the one consisting of the material universe, vast
beyond human conception in its magnitude and
extent, the other essentially and purely spiritual.
The Doctors of the Church teach that this spiritual
creation, although strictly speaking it has no direct
relation to space, is of itself immeasurably greater, of
more excellent nature and powers, more wonderful
and more splendid than the whole material universe,
as well as prior to it by creation. The first and
principal portion of this vast. creation consists of
those highly gifted spiritual beings, endowed with
pre-eminent attributes of intelligence and free will,
whom we designate by the generic term of the
Angels, of whom God says in the Book of Job, “The
morning stars praise Me together, and all the sons of
God make a joyful melody.”1 These so highlyendowed pure spirits were destined for a supernatural
end of eternal happiness, but this they had to merit
by the action of their free will; thus, though their
nature was by God endowed with grace from the
beginning, still they had to undergo a form of pro
bation, the nature of which has not been made known
to us, although the Fathers and theologians of the
1 Job xxxiii. 7.
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Church have speculated much on the subject. What
is certain is that a large proportion of those spirits,
under the leadership of one, the most highly endowed
and the most resplendent of all, by an abuse of their
free will and a refusal to obey Almighty God, fell
away from their primitive state of grace, became
reprobate, and were cast by the terrible judgement of
their Creator into eternal punishment. “ God spared
not the angels that sinned, but delivered them ....
to the lower hell unto torments.”1 “ And the angels
who kept not their principality but forsook their
own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in
everlasting chains.”2 And our Lord Himself tells us
of the “ everlasting fire which was prepared for the
devil and his angels.”3 Thus, henceforth there exist
two vast opposing armies of spiritual beings, respec
tively the servants and the enemies of God, actively
engaged in mutual opposition and hostility.
But this does not exhaust the spirit world. There
is a wondrous creature of God, who stands midway
between the spiritual world and the material world.
This creature is Man. Man is most justly defined as
a spirit or soul endowed with a material body ; and
the complete man consists of the two in intimate and
necessary union. By his soul man belongs to the
spirit world, and like the spirits is endowed with the
supreme gifts of intelligence and free will. By his
body man belongs to the material world, of which his
frame forms a portion physically, chemically, and
biologically. At the very moment of his conception,
man’s soul is created by God, and joined in the
mysterious union with the material germ that is to
evolve into his body; and this union is so intimate
and so necessary that it is destined to subsist for
eternity. Nevertheless, by a wonderful disposition of
Divine Providence there is in the life history of each
human being an epoch during which the spirit and
1 2 Peter ii. 4.
2 Jude 6.
3 Matthew xxv. 41.
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the flesh are temporarily disunited ; and whilst the
one goes on living apart, the other is, perhaps for
cycles of time, resolved into its component material
elements. This epoch is the space which extends
from the moment of the man’s death on earth to the
last Judgement Day. During this space, which may,
indeed, subsist for aeons of time, but which neverthe
less must come to an end, the disembodied soul
subsists in one of three states—either united to God
in the eternal felicity of heaven, or suffering in the
eternal prison of hell, or detained for a time in the
temporary place of banishment called purgatory, but
in this latter case infallibly destined after a certain
lapse of time to pass on through the gates of heaven.
At the great Accounting Day this temporary and, so
to speak, unnatural state of separation will in all cases
come to an end, and disembodied spirits will once
again resume for eternity their bodily or material
parts.
The Activity
of
Spirits
Such is a conspectus of the Christian teaching
regarding the existence of immaterial beings, or
spirits, of all orders. But the Church teaches us, not
only of their existence, but also of their manifold
activities, and of their practical relations to and inter
course with ourselves during our mortal lives. In
the first place, there is no doubt that Almighty God
makes use of the vast hosts of those blessed and
happy spirits who share the felicity of heaven as His
agents and messengers in the government of creation.
Hence they are properly called “ Angels,” a Greek
word signifying “messengers”; hence the Psalmist
Says “ Who maketh His Angels spirits.”1 Some of the
Fathers, indeed, hold that God makes use of the agency
of His Angels even in the physical ordering of the
powers of nature and the phenomena of the physical
1 Psalm ciii, 4.
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world.1 Be this as it may, we know from Holy Scripture
how greatly God uses the ministry of these spirits in
His dealings with mankind.2 The Angel who kept
our first parents out of Paradise,3 the Angels who at
different times appeared to Abraham,4 to Jacob;5
Gabriel in the history of Daniel,6 Raphael in that
of Tobias, are all familiar instances in the Old
Testament; whilst the New, from the Annunciation
of Gabriel to Mary to the delivery of Peter by an
Angel, is full of examples of angelic intervention.
Over and above this the Church teaches the beautiful
and consoling doctrine of our Guardian Angels ; that
is to say, that every individual human soul that is
born into the world, has assigned to it by God one of
His angelic spirits, charged to watch over and
protect it from both spiritual and material evils and
aid it on its way to salvation. “ He hath given His
Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
ways.”7 The task of the Angels is also represented
as that of carrying up our prayers before the throne
of God; and the whole of this angelic activity
between God and man is symbolically represented by
Jacob’s wonderful vision of the ladder between heaven
and earth : “ the Angels of God ascending and
descending by it.”8
On the other hand, there is no doubt that, according
to the mystery of God’s Providence, the lost spirits,
Lucifer and his host of fallen angels, whom we call
the devils or demons, are allowed to exercise no incon
siderable influence in the creation—perhaps, according
to some of the Fathers, even over phenomena of nature,
1 “ Omnia corporalia reguntur per Angelos.” S. Augustin., iii. de
Trinitate, c. 4 (quoted by S. Th. Aq., I. q. no, a. I. o.).
2 “Sunt igitur Angeli universales executores divinse providential”
S. Th. Aq., op. xiv., de Szibstantiis separatism c. 14.
3 Gen. iii. 24.
4 Gen. xix., xxii.
5 Gen. xxviii.
6 Daniel viii., ix.
7 Psalm xc. n.
8 Gen. xxviii. 12. On the whole of this subject, see Lanzoni, Gli
Angeli nelle Divine Scritture, Torino, 1891.
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but certainly in the spiritual, and sometimes even
the physical, life of men.1 Part of our probation in
this life consists in the suggestions and temptations to
sin which these evil spirits are allowed to make
directly or indirectly to our mind and will. “ Our
wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but . . .
against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.”2
Nay, we know, from both the history of the New
Testament and the lives of the Saints in all ages, that
God sometimes allows these terrible spirits even
physically to attack and persecute man’s body. No
more awful phenomena are recorded than those cases
of possession or obsession which are familiar in the
New Testament, and have been known in every age
of the Church even to our own days. For, although
modern science may be able to explain by physical
and psychological forces many cases that our fore
fathers recorded as preternatural, still it must be
admitted that there is a residuum, even in modern
times, of phenomena which can only be regarded as
diabolical in origin.
This teaching has been unchanging in the tradition
of the Church from the Gospel narrative of the
temptation of Christ our Lord in the wilderness by
Satan even down to the well-authenticated cases of
the attacks of the evil spirits on the Blesssed Cure
of Ars in our own days. And although we believe
that since the death of Christ “ the old serpent, which
is the devil” has been bound 3—that is to say that
his power, both spiritual and physical, is very greatly
limited — nevertheless the Church has always held
that he and his wicked hosts exercise a very dreadful
degree of pernicious power, and that more especially
in pagan lands and where the influence of the Church
is less powerful.
1 “ Immissiones per cmgelos malos,” Psalm lxxvii. 49.
2 Eph, vi. 12.
s Apoc. xx. 2.
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Mankind
and the
World of Spirits
Turning now from the activities of these vast
kingdoms of spirits, good and evil, we may ask what
are our relations with that other great and evergrowing multitude of disembodied spirits—that is to
say, the souls of all those who have departed this life,
whether in grace or in sin. Concerning these, the
Church teaches us that God allows the blessed souls
in heaven to know what passes on earth, and to be
interested in the fate of those living. And this is
not a mere benevolent interest, but one of immense
utility and practical value, inasmuch as charity leads
them to be our earnest and unwearying advocates
with the Divine Majesty, so that their prayers are
continually pleading for both our temporal and
spiritual welfare, particularly of those amongst us
who are bound to them by the ties of kinship or
devotion.
Likewise the holy souls, who are
temporarily detained in purgatory most probably are
similarly endowed with this knowledge of what passes
here below, and with the vicissitudes of their fellow
creatures, and more particularly of their kinsfolk and
friends ; and though these souls can no longer pray
or merit for themselves, it is held by great theologians
that they are allowed to exercise some degree of
intercession on our behalf.
The manifold good offices which living men are
constantly receiving from the world of. holy spirits,
whether the angelic hosts or the disembodied spirits
of the just, require from us in return corresponding
offices.
Towards the holy Angels and the Saints and Blessed
in heaven, we have a tribute to pay of homage,
veneration, and devotion, expressed either in the
public liturgy of the Church, so much of which is
occupied by praise and prayers addressed to them, or
by our own individual prayers and devotions. By
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these means the accidental glory of all the blessed
inhabitants of heaven is greatly increased, whilst the
Church and her individual members receive in return
a great accretion of help and patronage.
Towards the souls in purgatory our position is
reversed, and we living here on earth are, by God’s
generous mercy, allowed very greatly to assist them
and to shorten the weary time of their purgation by
offering up for them our prayers and good works of
every kind. In this great work of charity the blessed
spirits in heaven are also engaged. And thus it is that,
by these mutual offices, the whole of God’s kingdom
is for ever vivified by a golden stream of divine
charity which permeates every part:
“ For so the whole round world is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.”1
The constant communion between the spirit world
and mankind, above described at some length, is
normally a purely spiritual or intellectual, i.e. a non
material one. Yet there are undoubtedly rare cases
where God allows spiritual beings, whether good or
bad, to make their presence known and even to
communicate with living men by impressions on the
senses of sight, hearing, or touch. Such phenomena,
when spirits thus communicate in some sensible form,
assuming even bodily appearances, are called
“ apparitions.” Not, indeed, that these spirits,
whether angelic or human, do assume real material
bodies, but, by some process which we cannot under
stand, they are allowed temporarily to exercise some
influence on our senses as if they were really embodied
material beings. The Holy Scriptures, the history of
the Church, and the lives of the Saints are full of
instances of these extraordinary phenomena, which
Gods sees fit to allow either for the consolation and
direction, or for the warning and correction, of His
1 Tennyson, Morte d'Arthur.
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children. They are phenomena which men must
humbly endure for their spiritual good, but which we
must not desire or seek for, according to our own will
and judgement. Such a practice was reprobated in
the Old Testament in the case of Saul and his
evocation of the spirit of Samuel.1 And it is as
unlawful now as it was in the days of Saul.
Ill
The Pernicious Element of Spiritism
Now the essential and most pernicious element of
modern Spiritism is precisely this unlawful trafficking
with, or seeking to traffic with, spirits, whether good or
bad, whether human, angelic, or diabolical in their
nature. It is begotten of a morbid and fearfully
dangerous curiosity, like that of our first parents, to
know those hidden things which God does not see fit
to make known to us, and therefore to seek such
knowledge is to act contrary to and to sin against the
Divine Will. The Church in all ages has sternly
reprobated and forbidden all such unlawful commerce
with the unseen world, and has reckoned it as a grave
form of that sin which is known as superstition.
But it is not only the sinfulness of these practices
that makes them to deserve the warnings and con
demnation of Holy Church. There is no doubt that
the pursuit of spiritistic practices has a deplorable
effect upon the minds and even the bodies of its
votaries. The most appalling of these effects is the
weakening of the will power. This weakening is pro
gressive and alarmingly inevitable in its developments.
Like the taste for alcohol, but in a still more fatal
manner, it gradually grows in the soul until it absorbs
the energies of the free will and reduces its victim to
almost hopeless helplessness. Now, the loss of the
1 I Kings xxviii.
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free will, by which man has to co-operate in his
eternal salvation, is the greatest loss that can befall
a rational being. It leads to a slavery of the worst
kind and too often ends in the loss of mental control,
in other words in lunacy and despair. Not theo
logians only, but many experienced scientific and
medical authorities are agreed upon these sad facts.
Lest this should seem an exaggerated estimate,
listen to this pathetic outcry of a distressed soul—
one whose personality is well known to several—in a
letter in the columns of a Catholic newspaper only a
few months ago :—
“ I am a trance medium, and I might say an un
willing clairvoyante. Of course, I know Holy Church
forbids all such dangerous and pernicious practices ;
but from actual 'experience I find that the Church
does not fully appreciate their gravity. In my own
case I constantly receive absolution. But how can
I get away from the deadly fascinations of spirit
dealing, which is, as I have proved for myself, nothing
less than direct communication with the devil ? I
know and also feel the inevitable result—a lunatic
asylum. Could others only take warning ! could they
only for one frightful moment see the horrors which
it has fallen to my lot to view whilst in the trance
state! It is too ludicrous for words to imagine for a
moment that departed (passed-over) spirits reappear
at seances; yet many are willing to credit this.
Could they but realize in what close proximity they
are in reality to ‘ the prince of the powers of dark
ness,’ viz. Satan, they would in dread and horror turn
and fly before the magic powers of fascination had
succeeded in weaving that most deadly of all spells.
I have had many and varied experiences that would
take me many hours to relate; but this one thing I
must say, that for those who allow themselves to be
influenced by what they please to term departed
spirits, and who persist, in spite of the warning of
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conscience, etc., there is but one end—damnation.
I know and feel this even at this moment; but what
hope is there now ? It is too late.”1
And in introducing the writer to the press, the
well-known authority on Spiritism, Mr. Godfrey
Raupert, writes:—
“ Although it is typical of the kind of letters which
I am constantly receiving, it puts the matter in an
exceptionally direct and uncompromising form. It
is difficult for me to describe the keen distress
which these letters cause to my mind, and how
deeply they make me realize my isolation and help
lessness in the face of this gigantic evil. It is of a
most subtle and pernicious character, and is not
merely threatening, but is steadily invading human
life, and is ruining countless souls. There is, alas !
abundant evidence that the Catholic sphere is being
increasingly affected. I am daily asking myself:
What is to be done? A letter such as this must
in any case free one from a charge of exaggera
tion, or of over-emphasizing the importance of a
subject of which one happens to have made a special
study.”
We are quite aware that a considerable part of
this modern Spiritism, with its mediums, seances, clair
voyance, evocation of spirits, etc., is demonstrably
made up of chicanery and fraud. But such an admix
ture of mere charlatanism does not preclude the
really preternatural, or even diabolical, character of
some of the phenomena of more advanced Spiritism.
And whatever explanation, whether natural or preter
natural, be given of such phenomena, there is no
doubt that the crucial evil, the specific danger, of
spiritualistic practices is the eventual subjection of
the will power to what is denominated “external
control,” be that control diabolical or merely human.
This control, this surrender of the keys of the free
1 The Tablet, 22nd July 1911.
�The Spirit World
if
will, is the true source of the frightful evils to which
Spiritualism inevitably leads.1
You may ask with some surprise why we should
have chosen such a subject as the present upon
which to address our flock in a Lenten Pastoral.
The reason is that it has been borne in upon us
by testimony from many sides that the pernicious
cult of Spiritism is spreading to an alarming extent
in all classes of the population, and even making
headway among Catholics. We have been credibly
informed that the evil is specially showing itself in
certain parts of our diocese, and that in North-East
Lancashire it is undoubtedly spreading among the
factory operatives, so many of whom belong to our
flock. It has thus appeared to us a solemn duty
to utter a timely and most serious warning against
the dangers, spiritual and even material, which the
adoption of spiritualistic beliefs and practices involves.
And this all the more so, because all the beginnings
are small and apparently harmless. A little dabbling,
perhaps for amusement, in some slight forms of
occultism, leads to deeper interest and an ever-grow
ing craving to know more and see more, until the
victim becomes a full adept and a slave of the cult,
like the writer of the pathetic letter quoted above.
We,-therefore, in the name of Almighty God and of
His Church, most earnestly warn, in the charity of
Jesus Christ, all members of our flock who shall hear
or read our words, to take heed and resist the seduc
tions of any and every form of Spiritism and super
stition of all kind, no matter how mild; and we
warmly exhort our Clergy both by public instruction
1 Full information on the dangers of Spiritism, which we can but
briefly summarize, is to be found in several recent Catholic writers,
e-f ,^auPert> Dangers of Spiritism (Kegan Paul & Co.), Modern
Spiritism (Sands & Co.), The Supreme Problem (Washbourne); F.
Lepicier, O.S.M., The Unseen World(Kegan Paul & Co.); Lapponi,
Hypnotism and Spiritism (Chapman & Hall); F. Miller, O.S.C.,
Sermons on Modern Spiritualism (Kegan Paul & Co.).
�The. Spirit World
and by guidance in the confessional, to preserve souls
committed to their care from these temptations, and
to endeavour to release such as may be already en
meshed in the evil influences.
“ Holy Michael, Archangel, defend us in the day of
battle ; be our safeguard against the wickedness and
snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly
pray : and do thou, Prince of the heavenly hosts, by
the power of God, thrust down to hell Satan and
all wicked spirits who wander through the world
for the ruin of souls.” (Prayer of Leo XIII., said
after Mass.)
APPENDIX
The following is an extract from the report of a
theologian upon the Conference cases of the Diocese
of Salford, 1911-12, concerning Spiritism :—
“ Amongst a multitude of letters which have reached
me is one from a non-Catholic lady, telling me that
she, with a sister and two brothers, had had very
strange experiences, of which she sent me the record
she had made. I wish I could divulge the name,
because then it would be seen that the word of the
elder brother was unimpeachable. All I am allowed
to say is that this elder brother was a man who stood
in the first rank of English biologists.
“ These four determined to see whether they could
get communication with the spirits of the dead, as
they thought. In their own drawing-room, without
cabinet or medium, or lowering of lights, they com
menced operations, sitting round a table with their
hands upon it. At once there were signs of the
presence of spirits. To begin with the communica
tions were very trivial, but after a few sittings the
spirit declared that he was the spirit of Bellew.
Bellew, a c.onverted Anglican clergyman, was a great
�The Spirit World
19
friend of this family. They were pleased to think
that they were in communication with the spirit of
their old friend, and some questions were put and
answered. One evening the elder brother asked:
‘ Is your present religion similar in the main to that
which you accepted in this life ? ’ Answer: ‘Yes.’
‘ Are there any material differences between your
present religion and your past religion ? ’ Answer :
‘ Yes.’ ‘ Have you any reason to modify your views
with respect to the doctrine of atonement, which
during your earthly life you fully accepted?’ ‘Yes.’
‘To what extent? to complete negation?’ ‘Yes.’
‘ In that case I presume that you no longer believe
Christ to have been the Son of God in any special
sense?’ ‘No.’ ‘Nor that as the Messiah He was
and is the Saviour of mankind ? ’ ‘ No.’
“ These answers of the spirit perplexed and troubled
the sitters very much, for they were ardent believers
in the divinity of Christ, and in Christ as Saviour.
They began to doubt whether they were really com
municating with the spirit of Bellew, and earnestly
prayed to God that they might not be deceived by
lying spirits. A very extraordinary answer to their
prayer was displayed at the next seance. The spirit
speedily manifested his presence and seemed willing
to answer, but yet 1 like a chained animal seemed
unable to do anything.’ The younger brother was
ordered out of the room by the spirit, and he ‘went
into the country for an hour’s walk, all the time
requesting God to cause the truth to appear, and to
defend His people from deception.’ The elder brother
asked: ‘Why can you not communicate with us
to-night? Is there anything wrong on our side?’
‘No.’ ‘ Are you willing to communicate?’ ‘Yes.’
‘ Are you able to communicate ? ’ ‘ No.’ ‘ Are you
controlled?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘By whom? good spirits?’
‘Yes.’ ‘Then are you the spirit of Bellew?’ ‘No.’
‘Were you deceiving us last night and to-night?’
�20
The Spirit World
‘Yes.’ ‘ Why do you undeceive us now ? Is it because
you are compelled?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you retract all
you said about the doctrine of Christianity being
false?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What is the nature of. the control
you are under ? ’ (Answer) ‘ God defends you.’
‘ Then what are you—are you the spirit of a human
being?’ ‘No.’ ‘You were never in the body?’
‘No.’ ‘Then you are one of the Devil’s own?’
‘ Yes.’ ‘ Do the spirits of departed persons ever visit
this earth?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then all the spirits which have
communicated with all believers .in spiritism have
always been evil?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘ What motive have you
in communicating with human beings?’ ‘Hatred.’
‘Hatred of mankind?’ ‘No.’ ‘Hatred to God?’
‘ Yes.’ ‘ You mean us to understand that your hatred
to God leads you to wish to seduce mankind (whom
He loves) from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ? ’ ‘ Yes.’
‘ In order that they may be ruined and lost? ’ 1 Yes.’
‘ Do the spirits of wicked men ever return to attempt
to deceive their brethren?’ ‘No, none are so bad.’
‘ That appalling depth of malice is reserved for Devils
only?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Now, we know you are a lying
spirit, will you communicate with us any more ? ’
‘No.’
“ From that day, though they made a few attempts,
these four never succeeded in establishing communica
tion. It is of interest to know that these questions of
the elder brother were put mentally, without sound or
sign being made. These quotations, from a long record,
are a strange confirmation of the Church’s teaching ;
and therefore I was tempted to put them forward.
This is by no means the only instance on record of
the evil spirit being compelled, greatly against his
own wish, to declare the truth of his own discom
fiture.” (Sjtz. Saif. xxxi. pp. 106, 107.)
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, LONDON.
N.—July 1912.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The spirit world
Creator
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Casartelli, Louis Charles
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 20, p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: "A pastoral letter, 1912".||(BIB) Includes bibliographical references. Author's name from KVK . On p. 1 the author is given as 'The Bishop of Salford', without a name.
Publisher
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Catholic Truth Society
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1912
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RA1554
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Spiritualism
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The spirit world), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Spiritualism