[19] When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square before the local authorities. [20] They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These people are Jews and are disturbing our city [21] and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or practice." [22] The crowd joined in the attack on them, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. [23] After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. [24] When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake.
(CCC 2115) God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. (CCC 2116) All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future (Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8). Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
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