Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:02 So there's three kinds of ghosts. First kind of ghost is something that's due to some natural phenomenon. Uh, you know, a sheet blowing in the wind. Somebody has a, a vivid imagination. I know there was a, when I was in high school, I think it was, I remember there was a thing in great falls where this poor old woman was seeing a ghost. He'd come and look in her window at night, its January. And this ghost was showing up. It turned out to be a snow owl that was sitting right there and looking in, but you can see why she looked. I didn't know what it was, the big black eyes, you know, what a snow owl would be kind of startling if you, you didn't know, but that's, that's the first kind. Um, and everybody, uh, it's a rationalist trying to lump 'em all into that area, but that's not all there are then there's, there are two kinds that don't have that kind of explanation.
Speaker 0 00:00:50 The first is devils. The devils will show up, uh, you know, and, and torment people sometimes and, and have these haunted kind of things and polar Geist and all that. I've, I've seen some of this stuff, not where you see an apparition, but having to go over and bless a house where you have all this weird stuff going on, um, what they'd call polar Geist behavior. And you can, you'll see it as a priest sometimes. And it is pretty weird, but I mean, that's just the devil trying to do a psych thing on you, you know, and, and priests. So, you know, it's not that big of a deal if you, if you bless it, generally speaking, the bigger deal is probably what's behind all that, but, but devils are definitely something in the category goes or damn soul sometimes damned souls show up. We know that from Saint stories and all that, that, that they'll sometimes appear as well.
Speaker 0 00:01:40 So you could have damned souls and, and then a third kind is actually poor souls. And those generally are the souls. Uh, you, you you'll have these hauntings where somebody's sad or somebody that actually know who it is and they're wandering around in the house or on the place or whatever. And when, when it's not somebody's imagination, it's not made up. Those are poor souls. It's actually pretty common. I was visiting with a, with a sister the other day and we got to, she asked me, started telling each other poor soul stories. So a couple ma I'll repeat here. Uh, she was talking about one where as a friend of community, when he was, uh, uh, first ordained, he was an assistant in a parish somewhere and he had to unlock or lock up for Christmas mass, I think the early mass. And however it was, you know, he opens the door and here the church is full of people, you know, scattered through the pews, but there's all these people and they're dressed in old timey clothes and they're, they're up and down aisles.
Speaker 0 00:02:37 He's like, what are these people doing in here? You know, what's this going on? So he talks to 'em, they're just looking at the tabernac and the most ignoring them. Finally, one of 'em says, this is a, she says to him, this is a very important day. She's dressed in sort of a period costume. A lot of things happen today. And I think he stepped into sack, think, what am I supposed to do? Call the cops, go get the pastor. And he stepped out and nobody was there, but those are the poor souls that were coming to mass. They were there that day so that, you know, evidently the ones closes to tabernac would probably be the ones closest to being out. And you could tell something about the time they had died by the, by the costumes they were wearing. Although, uh, SOS don't wear it, but they're just appearing to us like that.
Speaker 0 00:03:15 I had a, a gal, I have a, a letter where she wrote to me, this was down Kansas city, where she grew up in this neighborhood in KC K, and she's over visiting a neighbor. And while she's visiting this little girl starts talking about the, the man in the garage and she's like, shush, you know, it's a little three year old or something. And she starts apologizing cuz this girl has imaginary friend. And uh, my prisoner said, no, tell me more. And uh, so the little girl asked her about the, the man. Well, she knew him, uh, because she grew up there and he had lived in that garage. He had come from the old country and then he saved up his money and sent for his best girl to come over from create Croat. She bought her a ticket on the ship over. She meets somebody else and marries him.
Speaker 0 00:03:58 So he has kind of broken heart, hands up, working kind as a handyman and all that stuff under that garage and drink too much and, and die there. And so she had me say three masses and the little girl didn't see him anymore. I was down in Texas. One of my parishioners, a really good guy, convert calls up. He's kind of agitated cuz his little boy he's just starting to talk is coming in and, and saying daddy, who is Mr. Smith? That's not his name. I don't remember the name right now. Who's Mr. Smith. And what's a ghost daddy. Who's Mr. Smith. And what's a ghost. Well, they had bought the house from Mr. Smith and he had died and this went on for two, three days and finally called me up saying, you know, and, and, and people in my parish knew him. This was really devout Catholic, Mr.
Speaker 0 00:04:39 Smith. Um, and so I said a master, I don't remember it was one or two, three masses. And then the little guy quit seeing Mr. Smith showing up, uh it's it's not uncommon at all that these things and these people will show up and they need our prayers. And you just pray for 'em or as a priest saw Sam mass from 'em or whatever. And you don't have to worry because even if it was a trick, you're praying for a poor soul, God will apply it to the poor soul. But it's very, very common and, and people just don't see him that much, cuz they don't have faith. Oh, tell one more and, and we'll call it a good cuz I could go on poor soul stories. No, I'll tell two more. So this happened to one of our priests up in Scranton and uh, one of the old guys comes in and he just can't take it anymore.
Speaker 0 00:05:24 He is gonna move out. Well why? Cuz his house is haunted and, and this priest friend of mine is thinking, oh yeah, right. Okay. And uh, but people in the neighborhood said, oh yeah, everybody knows his house is haunted. You could look in there, they move, you see these guys at night, they're in the kitchen. They move, they'll move things around and stuff like that. And they're kind of, you know, stomping around in the kitchen and up in the, in the house. And so he thought what? And so he called up the, the diocese Exorcist and he says, well, those aren't those. You don't have to do an
Speaker 1 00:05:56 Exorcism. Those are poor souls. Get the name of whoever died in that house and Sam mass from him. And, and that that's what you need to do. So he said, and he asked the guy, well, who died here? He said, well, no one died here. But right under my backyard was a troop mind disaster. So in the twenties, I think it was, they mined into the river, these coal miners and they just all drown. And so he got a list of all of 'em set a mass. They're not, it's not a haunted house anymore. So again, these things are actually way more common than a person, uh, might think. And on that note, I'll, I'll just stop or I'll keep going the whole dang day.
