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CV NEWS FEED // A Catholic priest this week warned of the dangers of using a Ouija board.
Fr. James Boric told the Catholic Standard, “When you use a Ouija board, you’re really opening yourself up… to the devil.”
A Ouija board is sold as a game where people can contact dead spirits, who will move letters on the board to communicate. However, the Catholic Church condemns use of the Ouija board as a form of divination.
When he was a rector at Baltimore Basilica, Fr. Boric used to regularly pray outside of the building where the board was named in 1890.
A plaque inside the building states that the board “proposed” its own name when the board’s first manufacturer Charles Kennard and his friend asked it. Allegedly the board spelled out O-U-I-J-A and said it meant “good luck.”
The article relates that on his deathbed in 1927, William Fuld — the businessman who patented and promoted the Ouija board — asked his children never to sell the board outside the family. Eventually in 1966, the Parker Brothers bought the rights to sell the board.
“The spiritual world is real,” Fr. Boric said. “When you use a Ouija board, you’re really opening yourself up to something very dangerous. You’re opening yourself up to the devil and his lesser angels — and they can really do harm, just as the good angels really do a tremendous amount of good.”
Fr. Boric added that while it is important not to be afraid of the devil, it is also important to remain in a state of grace.
“Stay close to the sacrament of confession,” he said. “Stay close to the Eucharist, stay close to the Blessed Mother and you’re guaranteed to win this battle.”
Another priest, Fr. Brian Nolan, explained some of his first-hand experiences helping people who had used Ouija boards. When he was a chaplain at a college in Maryland, students approached him about strange occurrences in one of the dormitories, including students seeing dark figures and having a general sense of foreboding.
Once Fr. Nolan learned that somebody in the dorm had been using a Ouija board, he blessed the building, and the strange occurrences stopped.
Fr. Nolan explained to the Standard that use of the Ouija board, along with other forms of divination or fortune telling, violates the First Commandment.
He added, “Seeking knowledge from anything outside of God offends the Lord.”
However, he also explained that welcoming the Lord into our lives and homes drives out evil.
“Sacramentals such as holy water and house blessings have great power because Jesus Christ is more powerful than Satan,” Fr. Nolan said, “and honoring him invites the peace of God in our home.”
Both Fr. Nolan and Fr. Boric said that a Catholic who has used a Ouija board or has otherwise been involved in the occult should make a good, thorough confession and stay close to the sacraments in order to break free from the occult.
“The two effects of sin are darkening the intellect and weakening the will,” Fr. Nolan said. “But confession reverses that, where we humbly bring sins to light and humbly ask for forgiveness and receive his mercy — and then we have a great clarity about ourselves.”
