Questions / Prayer and the Church year

Isn’t contacting the dead forbidden?

Church teaching

Answered on video by Catholic Answers

Video: How Are Our Prayers to Saints Different from Necromancy?, Catholic Answers Live, published Nov 15, 2017. Checked 10 October 2026. Loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play. Watch on YouTube

In short: Yes, séances and mediums are out. CCC 2116 Asking a saint to pray for you is different: they’re alive in Christ, and their prayers help us. CCC 956

The answer, in writing

Church teaching

Conjuring up the dead and recourse to mediums are to be rejected. CCC 2116

The saints in heaven do not cease to intercede for us through the one mediator, Christ Jesus. CCC 956

Our words

A séance tries to pull the dead back for information. Asking a saint to pray is talking to a friend who’s alive in Christ, and letting God handle the rest.

Watch another on this

Play video: What You Should Know About Purgatory, Ascension Presents, from Ascension Presents, 7 min. Loads from YouTube when pressed.

Do Catholics also pray for the dead?

Next step: Why do Catholics pray to saints?

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Related questions

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Sources on this page

How we know · 2 Catechism paragraphs

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 956, 2116 (official text on vatican.va).

Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words and cites every teaching claim. Our own wording is not an official Church text. Found a mistake? Report an errorCorrections.