Haunted houses or ghosts?
During my 19 years of priesthood, I have been asked to perform house blessings on a couple of hundred homes, the majority of which were simple, beautiful and non-eventful experiences — though there have been a few exceptions.
One family told me they felt a ghostly presence in their basement. Drawers would invisibly come out of the cabinets and float in the air; the family would feel cold drafts of air rush by them while in the basement; and occasionally they’d hear various noises, among other things.
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As it turned out, the former owner of this house had murdered his wife in the basement — so perhaps this soul was in purgatory and asking for prayers. Along with another priest, I traveled to this house, we performed a typical house blessing, and we took some time to pray for this soul. From that moment, all was well.
Another house had similar experiences, with a ghost roaming the floors and opening and closing doors in the middle of the night. Apparently, the ghost even came into the bedroom of the parents: They felt a cold draft rush into their room and actually felt the ghost sit on the far edge of the bed.
This particular house had the reputation of being haunted for a long time, and the neighbors had mentioned this to the couple before they moved in. A simple blessing did not do the trick, so I called one of the bishops from the diocese and asked what to do.
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He asked me to celebrate a Mass in the house for this soul, and told me he would be praying as well. I actually felt the presence of this troubled soul during Holy Communion and calmly and silently asked him to leave this family alone. Thankfully, this problem was also resolved.
Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College, has written, “The dead often do appear to the living and there is enormous evidence of ‘ghosts’ in all cultures.” He added there is “no contradiction” between ghosts and Catholic theology.
“Ghosts confirm, rather than refute or disturb, Catholic theology of the afterlife,” Kreeft told the publication Aleteia in July 2017. “Especially the very existence of a life after death, which is the main point skeptics dispute.”
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These examples and a few others in my priesthood are radical exceptions and definitely not the norm, but they have been very real both for me and for the families involved. Ghosts or souls in purgatory in need of prayers and supernatural occurrences are all very mysterious and troubling at times, but we should not lose our peace knowing this is out there.
Rather, All Souls’ Day is a beautiful day on which to pray for all the souls of the departed, especially those whom God has providentially placed in our lives.
Some things will always remain a little mysterious to our limited human understanding. Christ conquers all — and His peace and strength continue to work through his priests today.
Fr. Michael Sliney, LC, is a Catholic priest who is the New York chaplain of the Lumen Institute, an association of business and cultural leaders.
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