What is the Catholic churches's take on the existence of ghosts?

Answer 1

Well, if you mean by ghost is the spirit of death people, Catholic Church says that it is not their spirit, but rather evil who is undercover as their spirit.

Answer 2

The following lines from Deuteronomy, Chapter 18, clearly (?) state that the belief in ghosts, among other things, is to be avoided:

"When you come into the land which the Lord, your G-d, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the peoples there. Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead."

Of course, this is the Old Testament, which means that Jews aren't supposed to believe in ghosts. The New Testament also includes these lines, so, if only by association, Christians should also stay away from the paranormal.

Below are a couple of links that may answer your presumably Halloween-related question (the second link is complex, and not for the average reader).

Of course, the bigger question is:
Do ghosts believe in Catholics? ;)

Answer 3

To the best of my knowledge the Catholic Church has no official position on ghosts. The doctrine of heaven and hell would seem to negate any reason for ghosts to be the souls of dead people.

However paranormal phenomena seems to exist. These phenomena may come from sources other than the souls of people in heaven, hell, or purgatory. We simply do not know.

The Church is very suspicious of people who claim to talk to ghosts.

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

The only thing I could find that was formally defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church is that Ghosts or Spirits are those of demons. It says,. "414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God."

Answer 5

I agree with Rukidden. I am not Catholic.

Answer 6

I think they think the only ghost that exists is that holy one.

Answer 7

If you mean "spirits", angels and humans who have moved on are both "spirits".

Answer 8

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=14715

First, the Church forbids us to conjure up the dead (Catechism 2116-2117). Peter Kreeft in his book Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven (pgs 34-35) says the reason for “this stricture is probably protection against the danger of deception by evil spirits. We are out of our depth, our knowledge, and our control once we open the doors to the supernatural. The only openings that are safe for us are the ones God has approved: revelation, prayer, His own miracles, sacraments, and primarily Christ Himself…The danger is not physical but spiritual, and spiritual danger always centers on deception.”

“Nevertheless, without our action or invitation, the dead often do appear to the living. There is enormous evidence of “ghosts” in all cultures. What are we to make of them?” He goes on to say “We can distinguish three kinds of ghosts, I believe. First, the most familiar kind: the sad ones, the wispy ones. They seem to be working out some unfinished earthly business, or suffering some purgatorial purification until released from their earthly business. These ghosts would seem to be the ones who just barely made it to Purgatory, who feel little or no joy yet and who need to learn many painful lessons about their past lives on earth.

Second, there are malicious and deceptive spirits—and since they are deceptive, they hardly ever appear malicious. These are probably the ones who respond to conjurings at seances. They probably come from Hell. Even the chance of that happening should be sufficient to terrify away all temptations to necromancy."

"Third, there are bright, happy spirits of dead friends and family, especially spouses, who appear unbidden, at God's will, not ours, with messages of hope and love. They seem to come from Heaven. Unlike the purgatorial ghosts who come back primarily for their own sakes, these bright spirits come back for the sake of us the living, to tell us all is well. They are aped by evil spirits who say the same, who speak 'peace, peace, when there is no peace'. But the deception works only one way: the fake can deceive by appearing genuine, but the genuine never deceives by appearing fake. Heavenly spirits always convince us that they are genuinely good. Even the bright spirits appear ghostlike to us because a ghost of any type is one whose substance does not belong in or come from this world. In Heaven these spirits are not ghosts but real, solid and substantial because they are at home there: One can't be a ghost in one's own country."

“That there are all three kinds of ghosts is enormously likely. Even taking into account our penchant to deceive and be deceived, our credulity and fakery, there remain so many trustworthy accounts of all three types of ghosts - trustworthy by every ordinary empirical and psychological standard - that only a dogmatic prejudice against them could prevent us from believing they exist. As Chesterton says, 'We believe an old apple woman when she says she ate an apple; but when she says she saw a ghost, we say 'But she's only an old apple woman.' A most undemocratic and unscientific prejudice."

Recommeded reading:

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Heaven
By Peter Kreeft

Ghosts and Poltergeists
By Herbert Thurston, SJ

Seven Kinds of Ghosts
Seven Kinds of Ghosts (article)
By Bro. John-Paul Ignatius

Answer 9

I dunno, good question.

I belive ghosts are real