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Yes, Ghosts Exist, Says Catholic Apologist

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How have Church Fathers or saints spoken about encounters with spirits or the dead?

Jimmy Akin is the senior apologist at Catholic Answers, with more than 30 years of experience defending and explaining the faith, and co-host of the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World podcast.

The Register recently asked him to explain Catholic teaching on ghosts and otherworldly phenomena.



What does the Catholic Church officially teach about the existence of ghosts?


The Church teaches the existence of human spirits, and the term “ghost” means the same thing as “spirit,” which is why the Holy Spirit is also called the Holy Ghost.

Since human spirits exist, ghosts exist.

A separate question is whether ghosts — other than saints — can appear to the living. On this, the Church has no teaching, though Christian experience throughout the centuries suggests that they do.

Doctors of the Church like St. Thomas Aquinas have held that ghosts do appear to people.

Continued below.