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Well, I was recently listening to Mike Wingers Biblethinker Q and A, and in it he said that attempting to speak with deceased loved ones is equivalent to necromancy in many cases. The question I had is how Catholic teaching regards this. According to Catholic doctrine, is it considered necromancy to try to speak with deceased loved ones? I am aware that Catholicism teaches that it is appropriate to pray to saints and to pray for deceased loved ones, but how does it regard speaking to loved ones who have passed on. Can they hears us? If so, can they respond?

Heres the link to Mike Wingers Q and A episode where he addressed the subject of speaking with deceased loved ones and necromancy:

10 Questions with Mike Winger (Episode 13) YouTube video.

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    I think if you are just speaking to them in your heart that is ok and normal. However, you shouldn’t be holding rituals or seeking mediums to summon spirits to speak with them. King Saul got condemned for doing so in scripture. Commented Jul 3 at 7:57
  • The problem is that if you are trying to speak to the dead, and something actually replies, then it cannot be trusted to actually be who you think it is. You open yourself up to fallen entities. It is only safe to speak to God beyond this life. It is labelled as necromancy and it is why 1Maccabees is uncanonized in the Christian OT. Praying for dead loved ones is futile if you are to believe Paul.
    – Biff
    Commented Oct 12 at 11:40
  • I mean... there is an orthodox answer for this. But you didn't ask for that... cool subject.
    – Wyrsa
    Commented Nov 5 at 12:53

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It depends on what you mean by talking to deceased loved ones. There are numerous occasions of exorcisms in which the possessed will have knowledge in which there is no explanation for them having it, or another classic characteristic of the possessed to speak in a language that the person does not know. I say this to illustrate how demons know, contain, and are willing to readily share that information if invited to do so. The Catechism says

Necromancy is a special mode of divination by the evocation of the dead.

and notes that divination is

The seeking after knowledge of future or hidden things by inadequate means.

Furthermore the term Necromancy stems from the term Nigromancy from the Italian, Spanish, or old French meaning "black." If you're evoking the dead to obtain knowledge forbidden to the human state, then that in and of itself is an inadequate means in which case you would be engaging in necromancy.

On the contrary, however, we must be careful with the terms we use here. We don't pray to the Saints, we pray for the intercessions of the Saints. Similarly we can pray for deceased loved one's in purgatory, but we don't pray to them per se. The differentiation here comes from the Biblical idea found in Ecclesiastes that

The dead know nothing. (Eccl 9:5)

We have no means of knowing if our loved one's are in Purgatory or not in which case we do know for a fact that they are physically dead and therefore know nothing. In Catholic Tradition we have an empirical means by which we can and have determined whether or not one is in Heaven through the process of Sainthood but that's for another question. In short we can pray for the intercessions of the Saints because they're alive, but not to our deceased loved one's because we don't know and to do so would be superstitious and the means by which you attempt to communicate with the deceased could be considered necromancy. I hoped this helped, great question!

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    – agarza
    Commented Jun 4 at 2:43
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    "Necromancy stems from the term Nigromancy from the Italian, Spanish, or old French meaning "black."". Historically, that was a trendy spelling and belief for a while, but it actually comes from "Greek nekromanteia, from nekros "dead body" … + manteia "divination, oracle, …". See: necromancy | Online Etymology Dictionary Commented Jul 3 at 13:54

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