Dear Leslie:

We really do not know where this stupid superstition originates, but according to the Urban Legend guys at Snopes.com there are several theories on the origin ranging from medieval nuns asking St. Joseph for a convent, to German carpenters to sell their houses, to a monk in the 1800s who wanted land that the owners would not sell in order to build a chapel. >>>Read the full report

This practice is a superstition. Superstition is a sin, a violation of the First Commandment. The Catechism says:

2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.

2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.

In addition, we become accomplices in sin when we promote this superstition or facilitate it. The Catechism states:

1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:

- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;

- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;

- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;

- by protecting evil-doers.

Those who manufacture so-called "St. Joseph House Selling Kits", the owners of bookstores and other stores that sell these kits, webmasters of websites that promote this superstition, the author of books that have been written to promote this, should all be ashamed of themselves and need to know that they are accomplices in sin.

Those who actually bury a St. Joseph Statue in their yard to sell a house REALLY need to be ashamed of themselves not only for committing the sin of superstition, but for being idiots. As superstitions go this one is one of the most idiotic. Ya, I know, I am stepping on toes and being mean. But I think that those who practice this nonsense need a slap upside the head -- or forty lashes.  Now, Brother Ignatius, tell us what you really think!

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary