Kinds of Superstition

Sometimes the truths and practices of the true religion are misinterpreted or misused, and this is a kind of superstition.It is true doctrine, for instance, that the souls in purgatory are helped by our prayers. But it would be superstition to believe thata certain formula of prayer, or a certain number of prayers, gives absolute assurance of the deliverance of a certain soul from purgatory.

And the good and useful practices of Catholics-inpenitential acts, for instance, and in using medals, scapulars, and other blessed objects-are sometimes turned into superstitioususages by mistaken persons who invest such practices with a kind of magical power, instead of using them, according to the mind of the Church, as means of stirring up reverence and devotion to God in their own hearts.