You expressed your discomfort regarding practices or customs of some Catholics that seem idolatrous or superstitious: for example, burying a statue of St. Joseph in the backyard to get a good price for your house.

The Catholic Church is a big tent. A prominent Catholic once said that the theme of the Church is “here comes everybody.” Our basic Christian faith finds expression through the lenses of many different peoples, cultures, and languages.

There’s something good and something problematic with respect to the popular devotions that Catholics may practice. The good thing is that they enable Catholics to express faith with their emotions and body as well as their mind. For example, kissing a statue of the infant Jesus at Christmas helps many Catholics to heartfully respond to and “own” the Christmas story. The problematic feature is that without proper understanding some devotions may slip into superstition. This is the case with the practice of burying the St. Joseph statue. What may have begun at some point as a genuine veneration for a saint has now degenerated into an exercise in magical thinking!

The Church tries to guard against superstition by placing a high value on religious education and formation. The Church is also tends to move slowly and cautiously in expressing support for reports of miracles or apparitions of Mary or other saints. Such events require a thorough investigation before a bishop will affirm their value. Of course, as you indicate, superstitious thoughts or practices can slip into the best-run religious formation programs. The tares of superstitious thought may ever intermingle with the wheat of popular devotions, so long as we are human.

So–how to respond?

First, recognize that there exists within the Catholic tradition a wide variety of religious devotions and practices. Some Catholics are drawn to charismatic prayer, others to silent meditation, still others to a daily recitation of the rosary. You’ll be attracted to some Catholic devotions and turned off by others. Discover the ones that most nourish and support your own faith, and let the others be. Even though kissing a statue of the infant Jesus at Christmas is a meaningful devotion for many, you do NOT need to participate in this devotion to be a Catholic in good standing.

Second, it’s good to remember that God often takes the most unlikely situations or attitudes into occasions for grace. He converted St. Paul’s zeal for murdering Christians into a passion for preaching the gospel. An action that may seem a form of superstition to you or me may be used by God as an occasion to bring about a positive transformation in that person’s life.

Third, St. Paul spoke of the “fruits of the Holy Spirit” as being “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” A good test of whether a spiritual devotion or practice is true to the gospel is whether the person who practices them begins to give evidence of these “fruits” in his or her own life.

Fourth, keep a sense of humor. There are certain things you will see or hear within the Church that are just plain silly. This is the case in every human community. These things provide US with an opportunity to show the patience, gentleness and self-control that Paul saw as so integral to the work of the Holy Spirit in our Church.

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