{"id":165,"date":"2025-10-31T11:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewtnromania.com\/2025\/10\/31\/wandering-souls-or-demonic-deception-debate-continues\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:39:07","slug":"wandering-souls-or-demonic-deception-debate-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/2025\/10\/31\/wandering-souls-or-demonic-deception-debate-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Wandering Souls or Demonic Deception? Debate Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Q: What are &#8220;wandering souls&#8221; according to some theologians and exorcists?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: These are souls believed to be in purgatory, temporarily permitted by God to seek prayers or express repentance among the living, differing from common ghost depictions.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Q: Why is there debate about wandering souls within the Catholic Church?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Exorcists and theologians hold divergent views on whether these entities are genuine departed souls seeking prayers or demonic deceptions.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Q: What was the International Association of Exorcists&#8217; (AIE) stance on &#8220;wandering souls&#8221;?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: The AIE condemned the &#8220;wandering souls&#8221; theory in an internal note in April 2025, deeming it incompatible with Catholic doctrine.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Q: What theological arguments are made against the &#8220;wandering souls&#8221; theory?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Opponents cite the 1979 &#8220;Letter on Some Questions of Eschatology&#8221; which rejects an intermediate state for souls, and the Praenotanda of the Rite of Exorcism, which cautions against believing spirits claiming to be deceased persons.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Q: How do proponents of &#8220;wandering souls&#8221; defend their view?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Advocates like Father Javier Luz\u00f3n Pe\u00f1a argue that the Church&#8217;s broader Tradition is overlooked and that such theories are theological hypotheses, not heresy, pointing to experienced exorcists who encountered penitent spirits distinct from demons.<\/p>\n\nThis is a summary of the article from https:\/\/ewtnvatican.com\/articles\/wandering-souls-catholic-debate. Visit this link to view more.\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"SIs8KmuX40\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ewtnvatican.com\/articles\/wandering-souls-catholic-debate\">\u2018Wandering Souls\u2019 or Demonic Masquerade? Why This Debate Is Still Stirring Exorcists and Theologians<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;\u2018Wandering Souls\u2019 or Demonic Masquerade? Why This Debate Is Still Stirring Exorcists and Theologians&#8221; &#8212; EWTN Vatican\" src=\"https:\/\/ewtnvatican.com\/articles\/wandering-souls-catholic-debate\/embed#?secret=fx5q6cChaB#?secret=SIs8KmuX40\" data-secret=\"SIs8KmuX40\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: What are &#8220;wandering souls&#8221; according to some theologians and exorcists? A: These are souls believed to be in purgatory, temporarily permitted by God to seek prayers or express repentance among the living, differing from common ghost depictions. Q: Why is there debate about wandering souls within the Catholic Church? A: Exorcists and theologians hold [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denmark.ewtn.io\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}