by Gabriele Cantaluppi

Go to wizards and believe in witchcraft? Or simply make superstitious gestures to which a positive effect is attributed, thinking that they "bring good"?

These are attitudes contrary to the teachings of Christianity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is explicit: «All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, evocation of the dead or other practices which are wrongly believed to "reveal" the future.

The consultation of horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, the interpretation of omens and fortunes, the phenomena of clairvoyance, the use of mediums hide a desire to dominate time, history and finally over men and at the same time a desire to make oneself the hidden powers are propitious. They are in contradiction with the honor and respect, combined with loving fear, that we owe to God alone" (n. 2116).

Being superstitious sometimes also wastes money: many people rely on the predictions of fortune tellers, who deceive those who believe in these idiocies, deluding them with prodigious potions or magical rites. Traditional morality called the latter "vain observances": they are customs to which a positive effect is attributed. For example, eating certain foods on New Year's Eve, making particular expressions of good wishes, crossing your arms when toasting... We delude ourselves that through them we can favorably direct the course of our life.

They thwart the full freedom of God's children and weaken trust in him, even if they are often simple folklore rituals or rules of etiquette. The case of magic is serious, with which "one claims to subjugate the occult powers in order to place them at one's service and obtain supernatural power over others" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2117). Every form of magic is a recourse to the devil and as such a serious violation of the first commandment.

According to psychology, the superstitious mentality denies the predominance of reason and the cause-effect principle, because being superstitious ultimately means thinking you can manipulate your future according to your expectations. While the Christian places himself at the service of God: «God can reveal the future to his prophets or other saints. However, the right Christian attitude consists in abandoning oneself with trust in the hands of Providence for what concerns the future and in avoiding any unhealthy curiosity in this regard" (CCC, 2115).