Many are downplaying the seriousness of the Charlie Charlie game. Yet they are mistaken. Charlie Charlie is a simplified version of the Ouija board.

The game entails a pair of pencils or pens, a sheet of paper and the calling of a spirit named ‘Charlie’. A big number of short video clips, posted online mainly by teens, portray players yelling and running out of view as the pencil supposedly moves on its own and hints at a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ after they voice a phrase calling the demon.

According to Spanish exorcist Fr Jose Antonio Fortea, the Charlie Charlie challenge implies the very real, occult practice of the so-called ‘calling on spirits’.

In an interview on May 27 he said that “some spirits who are at the root of that practice will harass some of those who play the game”.

Even if, according to this priest, players “won’t be possessed” automatically, the spirit that has been called upon “will stay around for a while”.

Furthermore, Fortea cautioned that playing the game “will result in other spirits beginning to enter into evenmore frequent communication”. Consequently, “the person really can suffer muchworse consequences from the demons”. Thus, it is advisable that parents gently and patiently explain to their children that Satan is boring.

Secondly, the Charlie Charlie game, despite being stupid and foolish, is harmful.

Thirdly, playing this game is a serious sin which directly violates the First Commandment, (Have no other gods but me). This game equates to sins of idolatry and divination.

Lastly, parents should encourage their children to be healed by sacramental absolution.

The hidden opportunity of the Charlie Charlie fever is that of educating our children to seek God’s will and hear his tender loving voice.