Kinds of Superstition

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

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