Buying blessed items?

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LaSainte

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Buying blessed items…

I have a rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II. My father-in-law purchased it on eBay and gifted it to me. It has a certificate of authenticity claiming that it was touched and blessed by him.

The certificate is signed by Rev. James Blynt, from whom he purchased the item.

My question is, is the blessing intact?
 
Hmmm…

The blessing stays with the object, but…the sale of blessed objects is not permitted.

It is called Simony.
2121 Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things.53 To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money!"54 Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay."55 It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.
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Maybe someone can better explain this.

If the Rosary was sold as a Rosary at a logical price and it happened to have been Blessed by Pope John Paul, then I think it would be ok.

If it was sold specifcally as a Blessed by Pope John Paul Rosary, that would be wrong.

But hopefully someone can explain it better than I can.
 
Actually, it is probably more likely, that any blessings attached to an object are lost when the object is sold. Therefore, the object will need to blessed again.

Unfortunately, it does smack of simony because the blessing is used as a selling point. Even if true though, once sold, the object is no longer blessed.
 
Certainly as per the norms on indulgences the indulgences that were attached cease upon the selling of the rosary.

But I have not found to date any current substantiation of the blessing per se ceasing.

I am afraid too though that I would be suspicious of such a “certificate” …
 
What about buying relics? It would be simony but the relic remains a relic, yes?
And are relics blessed?
 
I don’t think it is a case simony, which concerns mostly serious offences, ranging from buying and selling relics, church property improperly, bishoprics (or any church office or position) and so on.

This is what I found on the sale, it’s a summary I think: "This item has been added to your guest watch list in My eBay. … This Rosary was obtained from Father James Blynt, a very respected collector and dealer in Rosaries touched … Papal Rosary Touched & Blessed by Pope John Paul II - eBay … - cgi.ebay.com ] "

Knowing that a pope has blessed an item can be a strong incentive to buy a rosary. Not so long ago in the Catholic Weekly (Australia) there was a big advertisement run to support seminarians (legitimately) in Africa by giving a donation of, say, a minimum of $19.00. For this you get a rosary blessed by Pope Benedict XVI (the blessing would have been a special arrangement with the Pope for the African missions I suppose or done during one of his audiences). $19.00 is about average for the price of rosary beads. I was tempted to make a donation to obtain one of those rosaries because I also collect rosaries (modest collector). So, even in such an arrangement to donate money for Church purposes there was the incentive of obtaining a rosary blessed by a pope.

Second hand rosaries are bought and sold all over the world. I can’t see that a blessing would be lifted from a rosary just because it was sold, which is the only way such beads can survive unless gifted or inherited. If it was sold and priced for the Pope’s blessing alone, that might be a minor case of simony.

Unfortunately items such as rosaries do mostly end up in the hands of people who do not believe in the Catholic faith and they will sell them for the best price they can get for them on the basis of age, precious material or even association (in this case a Pope’s blessing). You have a certificate, is it not possible that the rosary was originally sold as such to raise funds for the Church missions or whatever?

Whatever the case, I think it was a great gift from your father-in-law and if I were you I would treasure it for life. In the worst case scenario, you can know and say, ‘This rosary was blessed/touched by Pope JP II’, you can’t erase that.

Consider too that a rosary does not need to be blessed to be used by the faithful.

But if you want to be absolutely certain about the blessing aspect, you can take the rosary to Rome or have a friend take it (its a great place for Catholic pilgrimage) and attend the weekly audience with the Pope who will bless it as part of his general blessings for such items toward the end of the audience. Then you will have a current blessing on the rosary by the present Pope and you can then consider that the rosary was blessed by two popes.

I’m sure you will love praying on your rosary!
 
fred_conty said:
What about buying relics? It would be simony but the relic remains a relic, yes?
And are relics blessed?
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They get around this by saying that they are selling the reliquary which contains the relic, the relic comes with the reliquary.

I have seen very old and elaborate reliquries with multiple relics (fragments of human remains) being sold at an antique business along the main street at a famous pilgimage centre (several thousand euros). You can also get them, especially the small ones, on sites on the Internet. Not on eBay as they have a policy not to premit the sale of human remains.

Whatever the case, the relic remains a relic. Most major relics would have been blessed many times. The Church is probably not militant on this because in the past we lost many relics though non-believers (think Protestant Reformation) obtaining reliquaries after sacking churches. The relics were tipped out to be trod underfoot and lost, then the reliquary was melted down for the precious metals or in some cases keeping the reliquaries as works of art. There is nothing more depressing than seeing these beautiful reliquaries in great European museums without their relics.

Bottom line is that the reliquaries may be sold but that the price does not include the relics inside them. I’m pretty sure that if they ended up in the hands of the Church again they would be re-blessed anyway.
 
roveau said:
They get around this by saying that they are selling the reliquary which contains the relic, the relic comes with the reliquary.

I have seen very old and elaborate reliquries with multiple relics (fragments of human remains) being sold at an antique business along the main street at a famous pilgimage centre (several thousand euros). You can also get them, especially the small ones, on sites on the Internet. Not on eBay as they have a policy not to premit the sale of human remains.

Whatever the case, the relic remains a relic. Most major relics would have been blessed many times. The Church is probably not militant on this because in the past we lost many relics though non-believers (think Protestant Reformation) obtaining reliquaries after sacking churches. The relics were tipped out to be trod underfoot and lost, then the reliquary was melted down for the precious metals or in some cases keeping the reliquaries as works of art. There is nothing more depressing than seeing these beautiful reliquaries in great European museums without their relics.

Bottom line is that the reliquaries may be sold but that the price does not include the relics inside them. I’m pretty sure that if they ended up in the hands of the Church again they would be re-blessed anyway.
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Thanks for the reply. So the relic and/or reliquary loses the blessing if sold in any case to whom ever and should be blessed again? There is a reason for my madness. I have a rosary blessed by Pope Pius X!! with 4 relics in the inside center of the crucifix. This was
bought years ago in Rome. I don’t know the details of the transaction. My aunt gave it to me when she went there and it didn’t occur to me to ask questions.

Then I bought a holy card about a year ago from a religious store which had a third class
relic attached to it. I believe it was a tiny peace of cloth which was touched to something that St. Francis wore. At the time, I though nothing about it and just bought it. Although
the thought occurred to me just how authentic the relic was.

Just a few doubts.
 
I have a Rosary containing a relic of St. John Neumann. I would assume it is still valid since they technically sold the rosary not the relic. It was labeled as a Rosary with a 3rd class relic.
 
SalesianSDB said:
I have a Rosary containing a relic of St. John Neumann. I would assume it is still valid since they technically sold the rosary not the relic. It was labeled as a Rosary with a 3rd class relic.
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Please do not be fooled or naive about this.
It is forbidden to sell relics (no matter the class). People try to fool others by saying they are only selling the reliquary with relic being free, or being given the relic free but a donation is required.
If money changes hands that is a sale of the relic no matter how you try to dress it up.
 
I have a question for a priest or expert out there. My wife has literally hundreds of rosaries from all over the world. Most have been blessed but we are not sure when and where. Is it OK to sell them just as rosaries—no implied blessing? We need to do something with them and thought this would be a good way to get our money back on what we paid but don’t want to be guilty of simony.
 
I also am a modest rosary collector and have seen many of those ‘blessed’ relic rosaries on ebay. My understanding is that when an object is blessed, the blessing is actually imparted upon the person using the object. Once the object leaves that person’s possession it is no longer blessed, whether it is sold or given away. 🤷

Whenever I ask my priest to bless a devotional I’ve noticed that he’s specific in his wording, that the person be blessed in their use of the object.
 
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