Since today is the feast of the Guardian Angels there are some in the secular world, especially on TV, who are speaking on the feast trying to give an aire of respectability to an already firmly established belief in the existence of the Guardian Angels. However, so much in the public forum forget key points in Catholic teaching: the angels look, in glory, upon God's face and sent by Him to man and woman in manner that is unseen by man. Angels help us, and are in pure contemplation of God; they obey God's holy and uncontestable will.The 12:30 interview of Phil Quinn of Guilford, CT by Teresa LaBarbera of WTNH today on the theme of "Guardian Angel Day" was grossly misguided and plainly gave false information to the public. Now, LaBarera and her WTNH team are not aiming at promoting Catholic teaching; she did, however, abscond with Catholic and Jewish teaching, manipulated it for their own purposes, and promoted many falsehoods. Let me be clear, mediums are consummate self-promoters; they are false teachers. Instead of consulting a validly ordained Catholic priest or even a rabbi, WTNH consulted a medium. How trite! How tempting! How irresistible for the weak of heart!
If you want to know about the Angels read:
- Mike Aquilina's Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts
- from the Catholic Information Service: All About Angels.pdf
- and, from Fr. John Zuhlsdorf at What Does The Prayer Really Say?
Phil Quinn, like TLC's Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo, are frauds. Plain and simple. They have talent in twisting and making more understandable long-held Catholic belief but with their own spin. Quinn and Caputo, with the help of LaBarera propagate error. Each use just enough Catholic theology to say something enticing but suddenly go in a new direction to keep them out of criticism of orthodox believing Christians. Quinn and Caputo capitalize on the fear, grief, and emotional weaknesses of their clients in making the claim that they have been given certain gifts to communicate with the dead (or, "the other side"). What word but charlatan can be used to aptly describe the manipulation of the emotionally vulnerable these two, and countless others?
Having this gift is a real benefit for a professional medium like Phil Quinn. An hour's reading is $250 and a one half hour reading is $150. His talks cost between $50. to $125. per person. AND you are guaranteed to communicate with your special soul that you've been longing to know more about.
What do Catholics believe? Instead of consulting a medium, Catholics ought to know what the Church has taught, and currently believes. See the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 2116 and 2084ff. But before you get to the Catechism you can read sacred Scripture, for example, from the book of Deuteronomy where it says,
Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller or soothsayer, charmer, diviner or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord. (18:10-12)
Or from the book of Leviticus,
Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. (19:31)If a person turns to mediums and wizards, playing the harlot after them, I will set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people. (20:6)
You can also read First Samuel 28:7-20, 2 Kings 17:17, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Wisdom 12:4, Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 18:23; 21:8 and 22:15.
What's the error in using a medium, in brief? Using a medium is wrong because...
- it is against the First Commandment;
- it places faith in someone/something other than God; other than the God revealed in Scripture;
- it engages in the sin of presumption (that you can "go over God's head" for what you want);
- it contributes to despair, that is, a lack of hope, when the feelings change;
- it opens the door to sin against charity (love for God);
- it approvingly leads others to accept superstition, idolatry, divinization, magic and irreligion as acceptable forms of true Christian faith;
- it leads to atheism, either extroverted or subtle;
- it rejects that each human person, made in God's image and likeness, is a mystery fully revealed to us by Jesus Christ alone made manifest through the Holy Spirit.
Catholics have received similar gifts from God as the mediums purport. You can consider the experiences of Saints Peter and Paul, Saint Frances of Rome, Saint Padre Pio, Saint Bernadette and Blessed Anne Emmerich but it is God who opens that door, nor the person; it is also a very limited gift and are only a sign of God as these people don't acts as "conduits."
God, for the right-believing Christian is a personal God; he's a God who knows and loves each person in a particular way. Christians believe that God's the maker of things visible and invisible, the maker of heaven and earth and the source of my life, yours and everybody else's. There are many saviors but one Savior, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. God is not an impersonal energy, a life-force or a vague soul in the cosmos.
The new age that I believe in happened with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. You?
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