Question:
Answer:
Short Answer:
Necromancy is gravely wrong, because it involves communicating—apart from the Lord Jesus Christ— with those who have died, e.g., through seances and other forms of divination. In marked contrast, prayer to the saints is in solidarity with our Lord Jesus and thus couldn’t be accomplished without Christ. The saints are God’s collaborators, not his competitors, and therefore they are our heavenly friends whom Jesus has given to help us attain eternal life.
Longer Answer:
Necromancy is a form of divination, which includes conjuring the spirits of humans who have died to gain knowledge, whether about the present or future. In addition, these spiritual interactions are done apart from—and therefore at odds with—the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom. Consequently, all forms of divination, including “practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers,” are clearly wrong, because “they contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone” (CCC 2116-2117, emphasis original; see Deut. 18:10-14).
The Philistines had encamped at nearby Shunem, and, in his fear, King Saul seeks the Lord’s guidance, including through his own personal prayer and the intervention of his prophets (1 Sam. 28:5-6). However, Saul does not receive God’s counsel, because he did not carry out the Lord’s will against the Amalekites (1 Sam. 28:18; see 15:1-34). Instead of repenting and beseeching the Lord anew, Saul in his desperation seeks clarity and reassurance apart from the Lord, namely, through the help of a medium, the witch of Endor, who helps him conjure the prophet Samuel, who, in turn, chastises Saul for this additional misdeed and predicts the imminent death of Saul and a number of his sons (1 Sam. 28:7-25).
In marked contrast, when Catholics pray to the saints in heaven, they do so through the power and person of Jesus, in whom all of Christ’s disciples are united, whether in heaven (the Church Triumphant), on earth (the Church Militant), or in Purgatory (the Church Suffering (CCC 954-959; see 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Rom. 8:37-39). So when we prayerfully intercede with the saints in heaven, we are not seeking knowledge and power apart from Jesus, but rather united with Christ and his kingdom.
In addition, St. Paul urges us to pray for each other, not simply for each of us to pray to God alone (1 Tim. 2:1-5). St. Paul thereby illustrates that asking for the prayers of our fellow Christians is not an offense against the one mediatorship of Jesus, precisely because—in doing so—we are united in Christ and therefore his mystical body, which is the Church. And if we can ask our friends on earth to intercede for us with the Good Lord, why not our friends in heaven? Scripture teaches that the prayer of a righteous man on earth avails much (James 5:16–18), so how much more does the prayer of a righteous man in heaven avail? Scripture shows that some Christian elders who have died are in heaven. They are distinguished from the angels and therefore must be humans who have died and gone to heaven; and they clearly bring the prayers of those on earth to the throne of God (Rev. 5:8).
Heaven-Sent: “The Spirits of Just Men Made Perfect” (Heb. 12:23)
Regarding the saints in heaven, Scripture refers to them as “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23). Consider therefore the righteous man James references who is living on earth (James 5:16), but who then would die and go to heaven. He’s made perfect before entering heaven, and it logically follows that his prayers would have even greater effects, given the perfection of his soul and thus his greater union with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven. This reality aligns with Jesus’ words about the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom had died: “He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:32; emphasis added).
Those who have died but are now alive in Christ include Moses and Elijah, who appear to Jesus at the Transfiguration and speak to him about the paschal mystery he will accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31; 28-36; Matt. 17:1-8). If communicating with those who have died were an intrinsic moral evil, then Jesus would be guilty himself.
Also, when one prays to the Blessed Mother or another saint, he makes the sign of the cross when he starts and ends his prayer, a reminder that the efficacy of the prayer stems from his being one in our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus, the saints’ intercessory prayers couldn’t benefit us. Ditto with our prayers on earth for each other.
Consider further the Blessed Mother. Because of God’s tremendous blessing on her, and her cooperation with God, she is in a preeminent place to intercede among those in heaven (Rev. 12:1–2). Indeed, she is the spiritual mother of all believers on earth. As Scripture provides, the devil “was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (Rev. 12:17, emphasis added).
Some Christians might reply that the woman of Revelation 12 is Old Covenant Israel, who “gave birth” to the Messiah, or perhaps the Church, which is the New Covenant Israel and mystical bride of the Son. Arguments can be made for both of these typological fulfillments of “the woman,” and yet Mary is the most obvious fulfillment, because she actually gives birth to Jesus and so is the queen mother in the New Covenant, adorned with her crown in heaven (Rev. 12:1–-2).
For more information, see Karlo Broussard’s Q&A on the Bible’s opposition to necromancy vs. praying to the saints in Christ and Jimmy Akin’s Daily Defense.
In addition, see our tracts on praying to the saints and the what the early Church taught regarding the saints’ intercession. See also two of our related articles, in which Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., and Karlo Broussard explain the Church’s teaching in light of Protestant Christian counterclaims.