["Saul Consults the Witch at Endor," Caspar Luiken, 1712]
Exorcists often get asked about "ghosts" and/or "stuck souls" that haunt places. These are human souls who are thought to inhabit places after their deaths, perhaps due to some unfinished business that needs to be resolved before their final rest. What does the Church have to say?
Every exorcist knows how critical it is that he operates completely obedient to the teachings of the Church. Whenever he strays from such, it is an opening to the demonic which definitely will be exploited by the Evil One. Moreover, obedience exercised by the afflicted, the Exorcist and Team aids in the expulsion of the demons. Demons hate obedience. Not long ago, I was in the midst of a session and prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary to give the afflicted person a "double grace of obedience" and the demons' negative reaction was strong. They were repulsed by it.
The Catholic Catechism summarizes the Church teaching on the disposition of departed souls: "Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment" (CCC, 1022). The soul is immediately committed to heaven, hell or to a time of purgation before heaven. There are no other choices and there is no delay in this particular judgment.
Does this mean that deceased souls cannot visit us on earth? St. Thomas Aquinas weighed in saying: "According to the disposition of Divine providence separated souls sometimes come forth from their abode and appear to men" (ST, suppl, Q. 69, A. 3). He wrote that souls in heaven can wondrously visit us as a special grace. Many blessed persons on earth have been granted the grace of the visit of a saint from heaven. Souls in hell can, by a specific act of God, be allowed to visit the living for "man's instruction and intimidation" so that we, too, might not end up in such an awful place. And souls in purgatory can appear to the living "in order to seek our suffrages" to aid in their final liberation into heaven.
Many a saint has been visited by a soul in purgatory and asked for the saint's intercession to be released more quickly from its torment. The lives of the saints are replete with such experiences. For example, Padre Pio claimed, "As many souls of the dead come up this road [to the monastery] as that of the souls of the living." The prayers of this holy monk released many of the living and the dead from evil.
However, when encountering spirits in a place, it is safest to first assume that it is an evil spirit and to have it exorcized. Demons often try to disguise themselves as good spirits in order to develop an unholy relationship with its victims. However, if the spirit seems to be benign and not vengeful or harmful, and there are solid reasons to believe that it is a soul doing its purgation, then prayers and Masses might be offered for its repose.
A word of caution. More than a few have believed that they were dealing with benign human souls when, in fact, they were engaged with demons. Also, it is very unwise to engage in any sort of communication with such spirits, evil or benign. I know a man who became possessed after an unholy interest and visits to haunted houses and ghost hunting. Beware of thinking one has a special charism to help "stuck souls"- this could easily be the sin of spiritual pride. Rather, simply offer prayers and Masses for the deceased souls who need them, as all the pious should do.
There is an unholy interest and fascination today with the paranormal and with fringe "supernatural" experiences. I stick with what the Church has to offer: the lives of canonized saints (which are often filled with miraculous events), approved apparitions of the BVM, and, of course, the central focus on the truly miraculous and saving life of Jesus Christ. All these safely lead us to God, where our focus should be.
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