Father Eduardo Hayen, director of the weekly Presencia of the Mexican diocese of Ciudad Juárez, answers the question regarding whether Catholics can resort to magic, witchcraft and quackery to heal or have good health.
In a video posted on his Twitter account, the priest states that “one of humanity’s greatest concerns is physical health.”
“Catholics also consider health as something important, something that God cares regarding, and for this we have means that are legitimate and others that are not, to ensure our health,” he added.
Among the means that are not legitimate for this, the Mexican priest listed “magic, witchcraft and quackery, which are very serious offenses once morest the first commandment. They are hoaxes.”
Father Hayen denounced that with these means witches take advantage of “unwary people, who spend thousands of pesos or dollars to seek health,” and that they use “rites and ceremonies by which dark forces are invoked.”
“The Catechism of the Catholic Church is very clear in telling us that it is a betrayal of God, a sin once morest him, once morest the first commandment,” warned the priest.
“So I urge you never to resort to witchcraft and yes to legitimate means,” remarked Fr. Hayen.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church points out in numeral 2117 that “all practices of magic or sorcery through which it is intended to tame hidden powers to put them at their service and obtain supernatural power over others -even if it is to seek health- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.
“These practices are even more reprehensible when they are accompanied by an intention to harm another, whether or not they resort to the intervention of demons,” he highlights.
The Catechism further specifies that “recourse to so-called traditional medicines does not legitimate the invocation of evil powers, nor the exploitation of the credulity of others”.
What means are legitimate to good health?
Hayen explains in his video that “the legitimate means to be healthy are the recourse to medicine, to herbalism, to scientific advances, which God has given us in his providence through the development of the sciences of medicine”.
“It is also legitimate to resort to prayer and spiritual means to obtain our health, such as recourse to the saints, to the sacraments such as the Anointing of the Sick, and also to the sacramentals”, he added.
