What is the best way to know whether a popular Catholic practice is faithful to Church teaching?

Burying a statue in the yard to sell a house is not supported by the Catholic Church. This is nothing more than superstition. I read that more non-Catholics do this than Catholics.

The salt is a different issue. It is much like holy water. Salt, always used for the seasoning food and for the preservation of things from corruption, had from very early days a sacred and religious character.

Its use in the Church belongs exclusively to the Roman Rite. The Ritual knows two kinds of salt for liturgical purposes, the baptismal salt and the blessed salt.

The former, cleansed and sanctified by special exorcisms and prayers, is given to the catechumen before entering church for baptism. According to the fifth canon of the Third Council of Carthage it would seem that salt was administered to the catechumens several times a year. This use of salt is attested by St. Augustine (Confessions I.11) and by John the Deacon. St. Isidore of Seville speaks of it.

The other salt is exorcized and blessed in the preparation of holy water for the Asperges before high Mass on Sunday and for the use of the faithful in their homes. The present formula of blessing is taken from the Gregorian Sacramentary (P.L., LXXVIII, 231). Both baptismal salt and blessed salt may be used again without a new benediction.

The appendix of the Roman Ritual has a blessing of salt for the use of animals and another in honour of St. Hubert. The Roman Pontifical orders salt to be blessed and mixed in the water (mixed in turn with ashes and wine) for the consecration of a church. This is also from the Gregorian Sacramentary. Again salt (not specially blessed) may be used for purifying the fingers after sacred unctions.

The use of blessed salt is biblical: The Prophet Eliseus employed it to make palatable the waters of a well (2 Kings 2:19 sqq.). The Orientals used it to cleanse and harden the skin of a newborn child (Ezekiel 16:4); by strewing salt on a piece of land they dedicated it to the gods; in the Jewish Law it was prescribed for the sacrifices and the loaves of proposition (Leviticus 2:13). In Matthew 5:13, salt symbolizes wisdom, though perhaps originally it had an exorcistic signification.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13403b.htm

EDIT : I think it is important to point out that people can take a perfectly acceptable practice and turn it into a superstition. We can have items blessed, such as medals and rosaries, but then to use these items in a superstitious way is wrong. It is a line that we should all be careful not to cross. Praying to St. Joseph to intercede on our behalf in the sale of a home is fine. But taking to the next level of burying the statue upside down etc. is crossing over into superstition. While the Church would be fine with asking St. Joseph for prayers, it does not endorse the superstitious use of any religious item.

Check it with the teachings presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Is it Trinity-oriented, Christ- centered and orthodox in its content?

Not all folk customs - no matter how far back they may go- are based in catholic and Apostolic Tradition

Blessed salt ( which is often put into baptismal holy to retard mold, etc)is a liturgical blessing during the Novus Ordo Asperges( Sprinkling Rite at the beginning of Mass at times)

I consider the bury-st -Joseph -statue- to force God to sell stuff often just superstition but it actually can be an 'acted out ' prayer of dedication

the approach and attitude of the persons doing it would make all the difference

The blessed salt is a biblical sacramental rooted in the tradition of Elisha in 2 kings

Never heard of the salt thing, so I'll have to defer to the collective wisdom on that.

The thing with St. Joesph especially bugs me because he is my patron. He's the protector of the Holy Family, the one who taught Jesus how to be a man, the patron of the good death...and people are ignoring all of this to do the yard-burying superstition. Just makes you wanna cry sometimes.

For what it's worth, I've never encountered a Catholic store online or been in one that had those things. If I did, I'd be tempted to revert to Army-Sergeant Mode to communicate my displeasure.

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@ James O - Man, I Love the Asperges. Didn't know you N-O guys did it, too. The Vidi Aquam was nice; but now that it's after Pentecost, we can go back to the Asperges.

Saint Joseph being buried is actually more superstition that any thing else but like any Superstition you will read of people that claim until they used it they had no luck. I can only concur with others on the salt.

Ladyren where did you hear a Catholic can not go to Heaven without receiving the last rites, and buy the way it has not been called last rites for the longest of time it is called extreme unction.

I'd heard of the practice of burying the statue but not with any threat, simply that one was asking Joseph for blessings on selling. And I had never heard of "blessed salt" at all. Put it this way. what about the fad some years ago of driving around with the little plastic statue of Jesus on the dashboard. What people practice as opposed as to what their churches teach are very often two different things, it is not unique to Catholics. Superstition is rife in the human mentality. Professional athletes are some of the most superstitious people you will find, regardless of religion, for example.

Always trust God, but lock your car anyway and do not walk under ladders.

Blessings on your Journey!

i've got faith quite a few those issues approximately asserting no to homosexuality and no to marriage between comparable intercourse couples, no to beginning administration, no intercourse till now marriage, no to abortion and finished attractiveness of the historic creeds of the church. even nonetheless i'm no longer a Catholic in a ideal experience as i became raised interior the Anglo Catholic Church and so can't obtain the bread or the wine at mass - I basically take a seat on the returned or to the factor close to the wall. So in spite of in case you probably did have faith each thing it does not consistently propose you would be known

As an Evangelical Lutheran, I would have to say that attacking another Christian faith should be beneath us.

We pretty much have to stand as Christ's emissaries on earth, and support the love that Catholics have for our Lord. They are doing the Lord's work as well.

If they have a beautiful statue of Mary in their garden, or they feel that the protection of St. Joseph would be a good thing, that's 100% okay with me.

1) The Catholic Church is guided by the Holy Spirit.

2) There are no shortage of the boys from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican praying researching, writing and rewriting doctrine.

3) They are a serious academic bunch, wouldn’t want to play brain games with that lot

I hate that burying the statue thing. It is so ridiculous, thinking you can use prayer and devotionals for financial gain.

I am not aware of any uses of blessed salt except in holy water. I suppose it wouldn't be "bad" to use it to ward off evil, but it doesn't have any "special powers" that are absent in other blessed objects.

Just thought I'd say you are awesome for seeing anti-Catholics as the trolls they are.

EDIT: I wish I was in that Catholic store to smack whomever suggested burying a statue (verbally, of course, lol).

when in doubt ask your spiritual director...i.e. a good priest

your 1st case is superstitious , you cannot do anything to merit a promise of God to do something you want. You can pray for something but it ultimatelly God's decision.

e.g. burying a statue of st Jospeh to GIORCE God to gurantee your house will be sold...is just not right

As for using blessed salt ..cant say i've heard of that..but i've seen house blessings with holy water. i belive it more important to keep evil out of our own hearts that anything else. but check with your priest on that one