ASK FATHER: I bought an icon at a “esoteric new age shop”
Posted on 10 November 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
I saw a beautiful “our Lady of Perpetual help” icon at an esoteric new age shop.
I could not help, but buy her… and got her blessed. I call her the
Rescue Icon-
Do I have to fear, that there are any demonic attachments to that icon- given the place where she has been??
Usually, I don’t buy anything in such stores.
GUEST PRIEST/EXORCIST RESPONSE:
Often Catholic images sold in such stores are made with nefarious intent and cursed. This is an old tactic that began in Cuba with Africans who pretended to be Catholic and associated various saints with their own demons.
I always counsel people to avoid such places therefore.
Since such things can act as an indirect fortuna they ought to be exorcised and broken, burnt, and thrown in a river.
If she can’t find a priest to exorcise it she can follow the subsequent steps.
Fr. Z adds:
A “fortuna” is a cursed object. It can be just about anything, offered to Satan and then given or sold to a person to cause addictions and calamities in the lives of those who have or use them. Illegal drugs and tattoo ink or even food items can be cursed in this way.
The point about throwing in a river is that water is flowing, running. It was right, for example, for the young Austrian – perhaps by instinct – to throw the nasty Pachamama demon idols into the Tiber. Ideally, they should have been exorcised and then broken before they were pitched.