Q. Some people say seeing a cardinal (bird) is a sign of a deceased loved one. Is it possible to feel or sense a deceased loved one’s presence?
A. During the month of November, we Catholics turn our attention to praying for the dead. That’s not to say we don’t do this always (we pray for the dead at every Mass), but November is a time of special focus on this very important aspect of our Faith. We should not forget the dead. But do the dead help us to not forget them by sending us signs?
First and foremost, we must remember that attempting to contact the dead directly (that is, not through God) is a violation of the First Commandment and a mortal sin. This includes things like Ouija boards, seances, mediums, etc. If you engage in these activities, you might contact something, but it is not going to be Grandma. Demons love to disguise themselves as spirits of the dead, to play upon our pity and emotions as a way to worm themselves into our lives. It might all seem like harmless fun, but it is not. Stay away from these things.
Okay, public service announcement over.
As Catholics, we talk to the dead through prayer. When we pray, asking the saints’ intercession or even just talking to a deceased loved one, we are doing so through God, relying upon Him to carry our prayer/words to the person to whom we are speaking. God isn’t going to screen our prayers or not deliver them, so there is no need to take matters into our own hands to contact the dead directly, especially since doing so won’t put us in contact with the dead anyways. Mary is not going to show up to a séance.
So that’s us talking to the dead, but what about the dead talking to us? Setting aside the issue of ghosts (I think you can find an old “Ask the Register” about that), the dead do communicate with the living. Sometimes it’s a soul in purgatory in need of prayers (again, see the older “Ask the Register” on ghosts for more information); sometimes it is a saint or the Blessed Mother appearing to someone. In these instances, the saints and the Blessed Mother are communicating for the purpose of deepening faith in Jesus – in both the person to whom they appear, and in those who hear the story. Our Lady of Guadalupe is a great example of this.
What about less clearly miraculous appearances of the dead to the living? Harder to say. When we lose a loved one, it is common to want some concrete sign of their presence. We want to know that they are okay, and also that there is an afterlife. Death can make us question our Faith, and so being drawn to the idea of a tangible sign of an afterlife in the form of a sign from the dead like a bird or a butterfly is understandable.
Cardinals (the bird) have come to be seen by some to be a sign of a deceased loved one’s presence. As far as I can determine, this belief is rooted in the fact that cardinals (again, the bird) were named after cardinals—the Church officials—because of their red color and head plume, which looked like a miter to the early European colonists in the New World. Being associated with cardinals seems to have led to cardinals (the bird) becoming associated with God and then the souls of deceased loved ones.
While the Church has used birds as symbols since the beginning (pelicans=Jesus, dove=Holy Spirit), the idea that cardinals (the bird) represent the souls of the dead is not from the Church. I am not going to say God cannot send a cardinal (the bird, but I guess also the Church official) on behalf of someone who has died to bring comfort to those who mourn them. But to say that the bird is the soul of a deceased loved one, or that if you don’t see a cardinal or a blue jay after a loved one dies, that means they are not in Heaven is not compatible with our Faith.
I like what podcaster Father Mike Schmitz says on the topic. If seeing a cardinal or some other “sign” reminds us to pray for the soul of someone, then that’s a good thing. But we cannot get caught up in signs as tests of faith. Jesus warns us about that very clearly. Whether we feel it or not, we are connected to those who have died in the Communion of the Saints. We do not need a bird to tell us that.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
