began large-scale efforts<\/a><\/strong> to cast binding spells on him.<\/p>\nAmanda Yates Garcia, a self-identified witch known as the \u201cOracle of Los Angeles,\u201d told Tucker Carlson of FOX News last week that the binding spells are not intended to harm Trump, but rather are intended to prevent him from causing any harm to others.<\/p>\n
\u201cBinding spells are a symbolic action used to harness the powers of the imagination and achieve a tangible result, eventually,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI desire that Trump stop harming people that I care about and instituting policies that also harming me or people that I care about. My ultimate aim is that we protect the people that we love from having harm done to them,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
But can witchcraft ever be used to accomplish something good?<\/p>\n
Catholic theologian Dr. Anthony Lilles told CNA that even though the end result of witchcraft, magic or a spell may be some perceived good, these means are always an evil and are always below the dignity of the human person.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not they\u2019ve made a right judgment in the evil they want to prevent is one thing, but in Catholic moral tradition, we believe that you should never do evil that good might come from it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the logic of magic works, you attempt to control elements either above human nature or below human nature, and in your effort to manipulate or control these things, you always end up controlled by them. Whatever you give your heart to, that\u2019s what has control over you,\u201d Lilles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Christians we give our heart to God, and because he is completely above us, he is able to lift us up. When you give your heart to anything else, you always lower yourself, and so it\u2019s very bad for the person who practices magic, because it always diminishes their own dignity,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Another problem with magic and spells is that they operate on the level of imagination, rather than in the world of reality and truth, Lilles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReason orients us to discern things according to the truth, to respond to situations such as they really truly are,\u201d Lilles said.<\/p>\n
With magic, \u201cit\u2019s trying to stand with your human dignity on something a little bit more whimsical, something that can\u2019t support it. A fantasy can\u2019t support the dignity and greatness of what it means to be a human being, only God can be that foundation. Only the truth is firm enough ground for the greatness of who each one of us is as a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
For these reasons, witchcraft, magic and superstition have always been condemned practices in the Judeo-Christian tradition, which teaches that human beings must rely humbly and completely on the will of God, Lilles said.<\/p>\n
The Catechism of the Catholic Church categorizes witchcraft and magic particularly as offenses against the First Commandment, which is: \u201cI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witchcraft, magic and divination always stem from a desire to control and manipulate reality and situations in our lives, rather than humbly making our requests known to an all-powerful and all-loving God, Lilles said.<\/p>\n
The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, in paragraph 2115, that while God may choose to reveal future events to human being through the prophets or the saints, a right Christian attitude is \u201cputting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Catechism also notes that all forms of divination, magic and sorcery are to be rejected.<\/p>\n
Anything \u201cby which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one\u2019s service and have a supernatural power over others \u2013 even if this were for the sake of restoring their health \u2013 are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons.\u201d (CCC 2117)<\/p>\n
Witchcraft can be attractive because of its grasp at power and control, especially in a culture that has forgotten God, Lilles noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a culture that no longer knows God, that has forgotten to pray, that doesn\u2019t have confidence in humility before the creator and redeemer of the world, there will be a spiritual vacuum, and nature abhors vacuums,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo turning to the occult, turning to magic, turning to all kinds of practices that are beneath our dignity is something that we will see people more and more inclined to do as they attempt to fill that vacuum, a vacuum that only God can fulfill in a satisfactory way.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that shouldn\u2019t overly worry Christians with a proper understanding of magic and divination. Lilles said that Christians should not dismiss the practices of magic or divination as fantasy or as having no power, but at the same time, they can rest in knowing that their God is more powerful than any of these practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe access to the very heart of God, which is ours by faith, far exceeds any magical power that someone might have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe creator of heaven and earth has implicated himself in our lives and in our own personal plights, and he is able to accomplish so much more than any power or force or element in this world below. All we have to do is make a humble cry and he is there, and that\u2019s the truth we stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Father Vincent Lampert, an exorcist for the archdiocese of Indianapolis, told the National Catholic Register in February that the best antidote to magic and spells for Catholics is frequenting the sacraments.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t stop someone from placing a curse, but as a Christian, if you are you praying to God and going to him, the curse will have no power,\u201d Father Lampert said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Lilles echoed his sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need to grasp at control or try to manipulate things, whether by magic or other means. What we need today is trust in God, and if we trust in him, everything is going to be ok. That\u2019s why prayer is so important. Prayer is the school of trusting God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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