A medium who claims contact with the dead told the Cardinal Newman Society she was invited to Saint Bonaventure University recently where she said she contacted the dead for over two dozen students.
A concerned alumnus of Saint Bonaventure forwarded this ad that they said appeared on St. Bonaventure University’s web bulletin:
“PSYCHIC READINGS THIS FRIDAY Have any questions about your love life, career, or future? Ever wanted to reconnect with a loved one who has passed? Maybe a spirit is trying to get through to you! Have these questions and more answered by registered medium, Peggy Rogers. Join us on Friday, Oct. 28, when Peggy Rogers, a registered medium from Lilydale, will be in hosted in Café La Verna from 6-10 p.m. to offer personalized one-on-one student readings. Individuals readings will be about 10 minutes each during which questions will be answered. A canned good or two will be the spiritual reading cost. Peggy will be doing sessions for four hours, so sign-ups are on a first-come-first- served basis because slots are limited.”
After reading this, CNS contacted the university but didn’t hear back from them. But CNS did speak with the alleged medium herself recently who corroborated the ad and spoke extensively about her experience at Saint Bonaventure University.
Peggy Rogers, who calls herself a “spiritual guide” said over 25 students and one administrator asked her to contact the dead for them. She said she “brought in spirits that they recognized and gave them good information.” She said the students could identify the dead because she relayed quirks about their personality or by identifying what ailed them in life.
Rogers, who said she was raised Catholic but was now a “spiritualist,” explained that she believed there was nothing strange about being asked to contact the dead at a Catholic college. “I was raised Catholic. Most of the mediums I know were raised Catholic. At Lily Dale there are four or five former nuns,” she said. “In the Catholic religion we pray to Holy Mother. The Catholic church asks us to communicate with saints Christopher or St. Francis so I don’t see any problem.”
Lily Dale, the tiny New York community, bills itself as the “largest center for spiritual development and the practice of the Spiritualist religion.”
She said that as a ”spiritualist” she too ”believes in the continuation of personality after death” but added spiritualism does differ from Catholicism in that is has “no dogmas or creeds.”
She said the students at SBU responded very well to her. “Students and young people haven’t been indoctrinated with the fear,” she said. “That’s why they’re my favorite.”
She said the school talked to her about returning in the future and she said she would “love” to return.
If Saint Bonaventure University responds, we’ll be sure to update this story.
Update: Saint Bonaventure University released this statement concerning this incident:
While some university staff were aware of the students’ plans to host this event, there was a lack of awareness by these staff and students of the conflict of this activity with our mission. We therefore took the opportunity to educate our students and involved staff about the conflict with mission. Our students were earlier that same week involved with events associated with the Franciscan World Day of Prayer for Peace, and others dedicated their midterm break to volunteering at the St. Francis Inn Soup Kitchen in Philadelphia. Given these and countless other frequent activities that represent our mission, it would be irresponsible for anyone to characterize this isolated event as reflective of the University’s or our students’ Catholic-Franciscan character or identity.
Adam Wilson
CNS Staff
Matthew Archbold
Charlotte Hays
28 Comments
What on earth is a Catholic University doing inviting this lady, who is a spiritualist, to speak to and encourage students to ‘contact’ people who have died?
The Governors of this University should know only too well what a very dangerous thing is being advocated here.
Surely they know that it is highly dangerous to engage in this practice and it is forbidden by the Church to do so.
Wake up! St. Bonaventure’s and do not allow things like this to happen at a Catholic University.
Remember! Souls are at stake, nothing less. Please do not ever allow this to happen again.
Sincerely,
Bernard Lenehan
Now here is a bunch of “Catholics” and a “Catholic” University who have no clue about Catholicism. Lord, have mercy on us. Please enlighten our hearts and minds that we may seek You and the path You have given us. Amen.
How does such Pagan-Witchcraft superstition end up at a Catholic College?. As I have said before the Catholic saint(Bonaventure) who this school is named after must be Spinning in their grave or in Heaven at the the Pagan idolatry that his namesake school has become. Add this school to the Cardinal Newman society and Papal visitation list like the alleged Pontifical Univ. in Peru.-South America.The clergy Catholics involved at this Heretic school should be disciplined or FIRED from the faith and the clergy for Sacreledge-Blasphemy.etc..
Isn’t that how people get posessed by demons? What on earth are these people thinking!?
God Himself, in the bible said Not to involve yourseives with psychics, diviners, mediums, fortune telling, etc.. What is wrong with the administrators of this Catholic? college???
It’s sad and dangerous when ignorant people begin exploring evil subjects without knowing the dangers to which they are exposing themselves. The biggest lie in the world is that the Devil does not exist. That lie figuratively makes people sitting ducks for the evil, malevalent spirits of whose existence and power the people are ignorant.
St. Bonaventure University is one among many dreary colleges, once truly Catholic, who have enthusiastically breathed in what many there would say is the fresh air of the zeitgeist. Sadly and slowly the souls of these institutions are now gasping for life.
Fr. James Burthchael’s book, Dying of the Light, records this nationwide phenomenon in both Catholic and Protestant colleges.
I don’t mean to be dense, but why does it seem so hard for people to just be Catholic? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that these practices are wrong and even dangerous.
Ms Rogers doesn’t know the difference between asking saints and the Blessed Virgin to pray for us, versus conjuring spirits to obtain information – this shows that she is completely ignorant of the Catholic faith.
I believe it was St Thomas Aquinas who noted that one can indeed sometimes get information in these evil ways, but the issue is, where is the information coming from? It comes from demons, who do, after all, have angelic intelligence. And it never benefits anyone, but only leads them to perdition. And if a person is just a charlatan who is coming up with stuff from her own intuitions or subtle observations, there is still the evil of deception… But anytime someone says they are conjuring the dead, spiritual death is near or already far advanced.
We must pray for her and for all involved.
Lily Dale? Oh brother. Well, hopefully the University was able to make good use of this bad occurrence to teach students to avoid the occult. I hope they were advised to avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance. Satan just loves this stuff.
St John of the Cross advises we should never desire, seek or ask for visions, locutions, revelations, etc nor have any attachment to them. Contacting the dead? No way.
I think SBU acted appropriately as far as it’s response. They did react quickly as it was not an emergency but rapidly gathered info on what had occurred and then remedied the situation in a correct manner.
I think the author did a great service for illuminating this problem and hopefully it will not happen again with any staff’s involvement.
If you watch the “ghost hunter” shows out there in some cases they show Catholic lay people and even a retired Bishop from Connecticut working side by side with these mediums to discern whether they are ghosts or demons…which is disturbing to say the least. We know well we are commanded not to visit mediums, much less as this woman stated… “become one”. That is because God is the God of the living and not the dead. The departed are not to be called upon for our trivialities, it is God who should be called upon to assist us. The saints are to be called on to pray for us and petition God for us in times of need. There is a very significant difference in those two actions.
St. Bonaventure, intercede for us! Open our eyes, minds and most especially our hearts to God that we may no longer be offensive to so Merciful and Loving a God as we have in the most Blessed Trinity: God, His Son and Our Lord Christ Jesus, and The Holy Spirit! Amen!
The fact that anyone associated with a Catholic university was unaware that trafficking with demonic forces seriously conflicted with the ” mission ” of a Catholic university is tragic. Were they also unaware that such activity was objectively a mortal sin!!! A serious sin against faith.
It is a grave sin to use or go to a medium. The participants should feel sorry they did it and go to the Sacrament of Confession and tell God they are sorry for not trusting in Him. God gives us all we need to know. We should not seek out through the invisible what God has not chosen to make visibly apparent to someone. Satan misleads through these spiritualists. And, to have a fallen away Catholic to speak doesn’t help evangelization efforts, either.
What a disaster. How uneducated we are about our faith including the spiritual consequences of visiting mediums, etc. During and after college I ventured into the new age, visiting psychics, etc. What a waste of time. What a mixture of enticing information and very deceptive lies. 17 years later while coming back to the Catholic Church, I had a very important confession to get rid of all that stuff. I could not believe the spiritual benefits that followed. One extended prayer moment with our Lord and Lady is better than all that new age stuff of 17 years.
“In the Catholic religion we pray to Holy Mother. The Catholic church asks us to communicate with saints Christopher or St. Francis so I don’t see any problem.”
Excuse me??? She obviously doesn’t know her Catholic faith very well, which would explain why she’s a FORMER Catholic.
The Church certainly does NOT ask us to communicate with saints. As a matter of fact, Scripture specifically PROHIBITS this communication. We ask them to intercede for us on our behalf to our heavenly Father, this is certainly NOT the same thing as communicating with them as she insinuates. And how she words “we pray to the Holy Mother” is SO misleading. We also ask our blessed Lady, the mother of our Lord to pray for us and intercede for us. She makes it sound like Catholics hold Mary to the same level as God the Father, which is ENTIRELY UNTRUE!!!!
People like this woman are the reason why Catholicism is so misrepresented; she DOES NOT know her faith!
I’m so glad the school answered. It is also good the school be more careful and informed of what is happening within it
As a convert to the Catholic Church, I believe that every Catholic participating in this ungodly event should be fired and excommunicated for going against the Church teaching. Period!
So it’s ok to go to a psychic as long as you volunteer at a soup kitchen first?
An interesting book to shed light on this subject is THE CHALLENGING COUNTERFEIT by Rafael Gasson. He was a Spititualist and could “contact the dead”, but eventually realized that these were not spitits of the dead but were evil spirits who once tried to kill him.
In the second part of the book, he explains how the devil has counterfeit gifts for every one that God has given to the church.
Some Scripture texts are: Deut. 18: 10-11; Deut. 32: 16-17; Isaiah8:19; And finally Acts16:16
St. B’s response is disappointing. 1. Characterizing spriritualism as ‘contrary to our mission’, when it is a sin– an offense to God. 2. Citing the soup kitchen work as if that offsets the sin of spiritualism somehow. Reminds me of the mafiosa who donate money to charity as if it makes up for all the sleezy things they’ve done and the murders they’ve committed.
Given the attitude of the school official who was quick to attribute irresponsibility to “anyone…”, rather express regret over the holding of the event, one should be able to answer the question why 70 % of Catholics in America no longer believe in Catholic Truths and values like the Holy Presence of our Lord in the Consecrated Host, Purgatory, Heaven and Hell, etc.. The irresponsible officials of a school like this surely need to be disciplined themselves if the Church is to stem the tide of secularization and the lessening of Catholic Faith among our Catholic students in particular, and the so-called Catholic Faithful in general. If our Church officials are serious about what they claim that the Church is to be renewed, the schools are the first step.
Spiritualism or the act of communicating with the dead is strictly forbidden to any Catholic – infact it is a grevious sin and grevious matter because it frequently attracts dark forces beyond the grave masquerading as legit friends/relatives. Catholics do not communicate with the Saints who by their lives of holiness are raised in heavenly glory. We ask them in our prayers to Pray for Us and to Help us in our sojourn here on earth for the good of our souls. We do not ask them to manifest themselves or to act as fortune tellers. Any Catholic who is tempted to contact a dead person is treading a dangerous path and should seek the advice of a Priest as soon as possible.
If the University has staff that don’t understand the seriousness of using mediums to contact deceased persons, there is a more serious problem than this one event. At a minimum, there should be some immediate discipline including termination of staff. That is assuming the University administration sees this as a serious event. If I had sent my kids to the University expecting them to receive a Catholic Education, I would feel greatly betrayed. I believe it was Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said the quickest way for your children to lose their faith is to send them to a Catholic School. How prophetic he was.
The usual “mistakes were made” stuff. How about a good, old-fashioned apology?
We are told not to contact the dead, it’s necromancy something God forbade. God wants obedient children, He’s omnipotent you can’t catch Him unaware. Best advice: if you participated you should repent.
We secular catholics are not only responsible for the way we comunicate our faith but the way we follow the church teachings. The religious ones who are in charge of those institution should follow more than any of us the traditions clearly express in the Church Law. No wonder the Pope is telling his priests, go forward and again preach the Gospels to the world. All of this travesty is clearly the product of a crass ignorance of our Catholic Faith.
2116 “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church
Necromancy is an appalling sin. Beware! Run to our Lord Jesus Christ and beg His forgiveness.
Salvation is of Christ the Lord and no other.
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