“Ask a Priest: Is There Reincarnation?”

Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest
Q: What is the Catholic Church’s stance/teaching on past lives and reincarnation? I’m a recent Catholic, although I’m 41. I saw an article today on Catholic Online that concerns me. – R.D.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A. The short answer is, there is no reincarnation. The Catechism in No. 1013 says:

Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When ‘the single course of our earthly life’ is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives: ‘It is appointed for men to die once.’ There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death.”

That article you cited, about a person who reported a death experience, is a different kind of thing. Perhaps God grants certain people the grace of a glimpse of the beyond. I say “glimpse” because if a soul really saw God, the soul would be so overwhelmed that it wouldn’t come back to this world.

There are, of course, precedents for coming-back-to-life experiences in the Gospel. Jesus raised people from the dead. But what they experienced before being brought back to life is a mystery.

Suffice it to say, though, these are not cases of reincarnation. Reincarnation holds that people die and then return to the world in some other form or other body. The back-from-death cases in the Gospels, in contrast, deal with continuity in the existence of individual persons.

The upshot: Make the most of your life. You only get one in this world, and then you go to Our Lord and give an account for how you lived it.

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Alex Kucera

Atlanta

Alex Kucera has lived in Atlanta, GA, for the last 46 years. He is one of 9 children, married to his wife Karmen, and has 3 girls, one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. Alex joined Regnum Christi in 2007. Out of the gate, he joined the Helping Hands Medical Missions apostolate and is still participating today with the Ghana Friendship Mission.

In 2009, Alex was asked to be the Atlanta RC Renewal Coordinator for the Atlanta Locality to help the RC members with the RC renewal process. Alex became a Group Leader in 2012 for four of the Atlanta Men’s Section Teams and continues today. Running in parallel, in 2013, Alex became a Team Leader and shepherded a large team of good men.

Alex was honored to be the Atlanta Mission Coordinator between 2010 to 2022 (12 years), coordinating 5-8 Holy Week Mission teams across Georgia. He also created and coordinated missions at a parish in Athens, GA, for 9 years. Alex continues to coordinate Holy Week Missions, Advent Missions, and Monthly missions at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Cumming, GA.

From 2016 to 2022, Alex also served as the Men’s Section Assistant in Atlanta. He loved working with the Men’s Section Director, the Legionaries, Consecrated, and Women’s Section leadership teams.

Alex is exceptionally grateful to the Legionaries, Consecrated, and many RC members who he’s journeyed shoulder to shoulder, growing his relationship with Christ and others along the way. He knows that there is only one way, that’s Christ’s Way, with others!