Can a store sell a blessed item?

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And to add to what thistle just posted … the sin of Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual & blessed objects. The CCC is very clear on this matter.
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coyote:
So, then, the obvious question is what difference does it make whether an object is blessed or not?
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  • While blessed objects do not of themselves give grace, they do prepare us to receive actual graces.
  • Blessed objects help us to receive forgiveness of our venial sins, which are less serious offenses against the law of God.
  • Blessed objects obtain for us the forgiveness of the punishment we deserve for our sins.
  • Blessed objects obtain for us health of body and other blessings that we need in our daily life.
  • Blessed objects protect us from the power of the devil and temptations to do evil.
    For more information, check out [ by Our Lady Teaches About Sacramentals and Blesses ObjectsAlbert J. M. Shamon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1877678228/203-2634573-3951910).
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JCPhoenix:
I’ll ask our priests about it…they are all very holy and VERY orthodox!
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If he tells you information which is different from what is being presented here, ask him to explain the following which is from the Vatican site … * CCC 2118 - God’s first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
  • CCC 2121 - Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things.
    If Simony is sinful and Simony is defined as the BUYING or SELLING of spiritual things. Then, the BUYING or SELLING of spiritual things is sinful. I can’t see how any other conclusion is possible.
 
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thistle:
First let me say that I am not comdemning you. I’m only responding to the posts. If you did not know that buying a blessed item was a mortal sin then you did not commit a mortal sin. If anyone knows that buying a blessed item is a mortal sin and they know the item they are buying has been blessed then it is a mortal sin they have committed. There is nothing in the CCC that says its okay depending on how much you pay. You are not allowed to do it at all. That’s why I find it very surprising that you have a store that sells blessed itmes.
CCC 2118 states “God’s first Commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilige and simony”.
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No offense taken. 🙂 I was just surprised, is all. In my case, it wasn’t a store, but a private individual. He definitely wasn’t charging more for the blessing or name dropping, the rosary was very inexpensive.

If the situation ever comes up again, I’ll know more about it!
 
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aurora77:
No offense taken. 🙂 I was just surprised, is all. In my case, it wasn’t a store, but a private individual. He definitely wasn’t charging more for the blessing or name dropping, the rosary was very inexpensive.

If the situation ever comes up again, I’ll know more about it!
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It might be worthwhile asking a priest about this though as I’m now curious what should be done with (if anything) the item bought!
 
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thistle:
It might be worthwhile asking a priest about this though as I’m now curious what should be done with (if anything) the item bought!
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My husband (not Catholic) suggested we take it to our priest and have him bless it “so we know it’s done right.” 😉
 
A physical object, by definition, is not a spiritual thing. The prohibition against simony is a prohibition against doing what Simon Magus (hence the name “simony”) did in the book of Acts. He tried to buy the power of the Spirit from the Apostles. Simony would be using money (or some other resource) to convince a priest to bless an object, or to pray the Mass, or give some other sacrament. The person committing simony is attempting to buy or sell a spiritual power or effect.

Otherwise, if one gets their house blessed, it would be simony to ever sell your house.
 
A blessed object IS a spiritual thing and while “powers” would be the wrong word to use, they do have certain elements associated with them that unblessed objects do not have (see my list above). So buying or selling blessed objects IS simony and is therefore prohibitted.
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Prometheum_x:
Otherwise, if one gets their house blessed, it would be simony to ever sell your house.
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The blessing of a home is not the same thing as the blessing of a sacramental. I would suggest by Our Lady Teaches About Sacramentals and Blesses ObjectsAlbert J. M. Shamon to help clear things up for you.
 
He does a very good job of putting all of this in perspective. The one thing that I would disagree with is his statement in his opening paragraph …

It is the sin of simony to sell blessed objects

… According to the CCC, which I quoted directly from the Vatican web site, the sin of simony is to sell AND buy blessed objects.
 
According to the CCC, which I quoted directly from the Vatican web site, the sin of simony is to sell AND buy blessed objects.
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I think one is allowed to buy a blessed object/sacred relic in a grave situation (such as someone auctioning off a sacred relic and the buyer bids on it to avoid it falling into the hands of someone who would use it for sacrilegious use). In that case their intention wouldn’t be to buy the sacred relic but to avoid sacrilege.
 
Let me see if I can put this in perspective.

Let’s say you have a friend that is going on a trip to Rome and you give him/her money to buy a rosary and have it blessed by the Pope. Assuming the amount you give to him/her is the amount to cover an unblessed rosary and he/she buys an unblessed rosary then goes and has it blessed, that is fine. If he/she charges you extra for having it blessed, then both of you are committing the sin of simony. If he/she purchases a rosary that has already been blessed, then he/she has committed the sin of simony. If he/she tells you about it and you accept it knowing that he/she purchased an already blessed rosary, then you share in the sin of simony.

If you go to a store that you know sells blessed items, then buying such an item would be the sin of simony even if the price of the item was less of what you saw that item on sale for at other places. Price has no bearing on the matter.

If you buy an item in a store and they have a free service where the items are blessed, then that is fine. If they charge for this service, even if the amount is small like only $1, you are committing the sin of simony because you are paying for a blessing. If they don’t charge for the service but have a donation basket and you throw in $100, that is still fine because the donation was not REQUIRED and whether you gave the money or not, the item would still have been blessed.

Does this clear things up a bit?
 
Sir Knight,

I may have missed it, but while I saw references to the Catechism, I never saw any direct quotes that related to simony. I certainly did not see the following section. From the Vatican website:
**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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The example that the catechism is Simon the magician who wanted to buy *spiritual power. *He specifically wanted to purchase the gift of the Holy Spirit. Attempting to buy a something so as to obtain its spiritual power is simony. I cannot, must not, sell or purchase a blessing.

I see nothing in there that prohibits selling a blessed object to cover the cost of its physical components.

Actually, if such a prohibition is in effect concerning sacramentals, I don’t know why you could sell a rosary or icon at all, whether or not it has been blessed, for its mere creation is for a sacred purpose.

Can you cit any relevant canons from the Code of Canon Law on this subject? Otherwise (and maybe even then) we will simply be pitting our own interpretations of a non-exhaustive section on Simony in the Catechism.
 
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Prometheum_x:
Sir Knight,

I may have missed it, but while I saw references to the Catechism, I never saw any direct quotes that related to simony. I certainly did not see the following section. From the Vatican website:

The example that the catechism is Simon the magician who wanted to buy *spiritual power. *He specifically wanted to purchase the gift of the Holy Spirit. Attempting to buy a something so as to obtain its spiritual power is simony. I cannot, must not, sell or purchase a blessing.

I see nothing in there that prohibits selling a blessed object to cover the cost of its physical components.

Actually, if such a prohibition is in effect concerning sacramentals, I don’t know why you could sell a rosary or icon at all, whether or not it has been blessed, for its mere creation is for a sacred purpose.

Can you cit any relevant canons from the Code of Canon Law on this subject? Otherwise (and maybe even then) we will simply be pitting our own interpretations of a non-exhaustive section on Simony in the Catechism.
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The sin of simony is the reason Catholic stores selling religious items do not sell blessed items.
If you can think of a different reason I’m curious.
 
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thistle:
The sin of simony is the reason Catholic stores selling religious items do not sell blessed items.
If you can think of a different reason I’m curious.
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To be clear, I certainly do not have a firm opinion on this matter.

I can see that it could be very prudent for Catholic stores to not sell blessed items, for, while the sale of such may be admissable (within reason), it may present an occasion for potential buyers to fall into the sin of simony. The store may have no intention to be fixing a price on the spiritual good of an object, but they cannot prevent a buyer from attempting to do so.
 
I have bought rosaries over the internet from a place called www.vaticangift.com. It is run by this lady in Rome. If you request, once you have purchased the rosary from her, she will take it to the next mass and have it blessed by the pope. I think what she does is OK. She doesn’t charge high prices for the rosaries. The only real big expense is the postage to have it shipped from Rome.
 
If you request, once you have purchased the rosary from her, she will take it to the next mass and have it blessed by the pope. I think what she does is OK.
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The Sisters of Carmel do the same thing:
sistersofcarmel.com/

The item is blessed after you purchase it (hopefully).
 
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Prometheum_x:
I cannot, must not, sell or purchase a blessing.

I see nothing in there that prohibits selling a blessed object to cover the cost of its physical components.
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See here.
 
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Jocelyn:
There is such a shortage of priests in my area (2 priests take care of 5 parishes and soon it will only be 1 priest) that I hate to bother them with blessing items I have bought. I know it is wrong to feel this way. They are just so busy…

I don’t like the priest shortage. That’s for another thread, I geuss!
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I know how you feel but on the other hand the reason a man becomes a priest is to address the spiritual needs of his flock…and another thing to consider is very few of us get a free ride…we are put on earth to be of service to others, it is even more so with priests. Let them do what they were ordained to do! If we ,the laity, want to help priests we need to help in the administration, financial, plant mantainance, etc. areas and let our priests attend to the teaching and spiritual needs of their flock.
 
Sir Knight:
See here.
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That very same thing that you link to indicates that a church building (which has been blessed) can be sold, because it is being sold for a practical purpose, and the intent is not to sell the blessing. Or, again, the example is given of buying a rosary for someone overseas, getting it blessed by the pope, and returning home, and is given a reimbursement for the cost of the rosary.
 
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Prometheum_x:
I see nothing in there that prohibits selling a blessed object to cover the cost of its physical components.
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Let me try this again with a more direct example. Two stores both selling the same exact item. If store ‘A’ sells the item for $10 and store ‘B’ sells the item for $5 and the item in store ‘B’ has already been blessed, it would be wrong for you to buy it even though it is cheaper than the unblessed item. The cost of the item has no bearing on the matter according to the CCC. Buying a blessed item is wrong. Period.

Another example. Again two store selling the same items for the same price and this time both items are unblessed. Both stores offer a service to have the items blessed. The first store charges a $1 for the blessing service while the other store asks for volunteery [sp] donations. To pay the $1 at the first store to have the item blessed would be wrong. If you gave a $100 donation at the second store that would not be wrong because the blessing would have happened if you gave the money or not while at the fist store the blessing would not have happened unless you paid the $1.

Again, the cost has no bearing on the matter. Bottom line: do not buy pre-blessed items and do not pay to have an item blessed.
 
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