Icon in Church Bulletin

[brittrossiter]

Here’s a question - my parish includes on the front cover of its weekly bulletin a color reproduction of an icon, usually a different one each week.

What should I do with these bulletins? I feel guilty recycling them or tossing them out with the icon on the cover. Should I be burning them? Burying them? Giving them to someone?

 

[Marc_Aupiais]

I would say, it is an image, so should be given some respect, but I think the printing was an intent for it to be kept, in any case, I think it isn’t morrally wrong to dispose of it, as I cannot find anything which calls an image a sacramental persey, or that it deserves special respect, so, perhaps recycle in, perhaps throw it out, but I am further researching it.

 

[Marc_Aupiais]

I like the reply of Jimmy Akin better, because of Fish-Eaters positions on Vatican two, but I’ll supply both.

"(Jimmy Akin)

A reader writes:

What is the proper way to dispose of ‘worn’ or broken sacramentals?

There is nothing in canon law on this, however the following represents the relevant pious custom:

If the object has been blessed, either burn it or bury it (depending on whether it is significantly flammable).
If the object has not been blessed, simply throw it away."
jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2005/08/disposing_of_sa.html

“When a material sacramental becomes so worn that it can no longer be used as a sacramental, a Catholic won’t casually toss it into the trash. To prevent desecration, the sacramental should be returned to the earthly elements. Holy water, for example, should be poured into a hole dug in the earth, in a spot no one would walk over. Combustible sacramentals, such as scapulars and holy books, should be burned and then buried. Larger sacramentals that don’t burn should be altered so that their form no longer appears to be a sacramental (ex., a statue should be broken up into small pieces) and then buried. Objects made of metals can be melted down and used for another purpose.”
fisheaters.com/disposing.html

 

[Khoria_Anna]

When I was Orthodox, I remember an incident after coffee hour. The little girls in the parish (dd included) were helping to clean up. They used the bulletins (with a picture of an icon on the cover) from the recycle bin to use as dustpans. On seeing this, we adults recognized that this was inappropriate. Some were scandalized, others bothered by it to varying degrees. Fortunately, there was a stack of newspapers to be recycled also in the bin that held pictures of a local school event in which some of the parish kids had participated. I pulled a newspaper and used it as a dustpan, covering a couple of the kids pictures with dust, and asked them how they felt about that. They weren’t happy and made the connection of the inappropriateness of using the bulletins in that way. The icons on the bulletins had not been blessed; it was OK to recycle them, if no one needed them or wanted to take them home. Similarly, they all had copies of the newspapers at home and the ones in the church were no longer needed, so they could be recycled. Still, it was offensive to use either as a dustpan.:twocents:

 

[redrosetea]

I don’t think they are considered a sacramental unless they are blessed

 

[Nicholas82]

I don’t think they are considered a sacramental unless they are blessed

No, but they’re still icons and sould be treated with respect. Don’t just throw them in the trash. My parish has printed icons on the bulletins every week and I usually bring them home. You could mount them if they’re nice enough. Otherwise I was told to save them up in a folder or something until I could burn them. Then, just scatter the ashes somewere where they won’t be walked on.

 

[bpbasilphx]

I know one Orthodox bishop who has prohibited such bulletins for precisely this reason.

 

[redrosetea]

No, but they’re still icons and sould be treated with respect. Don’t just throw them in the trash. My parish has printed icons on the bulletins every week and I usually bring them home. You could mount them if they’re nice enough. Otherwise I was told to save them up in a folder or something until I could burn them. Then, just scatter the ashes somewere where they won’t be walked on.

I agree

 

[notsmart]

Does your church have their bulletin online? Mine does. I refuse to take the hard copy for reasons like this.

 

[Isa_Almisry]

I used to save mine and give them to people to smuggle into the Soviet block. I was told that people wept on receiving them. I desposited a bunch myself while in the Communist block. With the fall of communism I bring them to the Muslim world when I travel there. Some I save and venerate.

 

[8eofilos]

Wow, this is something that bothered me for a long time. I don’t recall in the first days that many pictures or Icons in books and booklets as today. Of course no one ever thought that people would be throwing away religious things until magazines began to come out with all these Icons and I was feeling guilty about throwing them away until I understood this…
Man is the “image of God”. We make Icons and we put them in our churches in order to be reminded constantly Jesus and the Saints.Icons as people claim and I beleive and seen make miracles but not themselves but throught the Saint or Jesus through the Power of our God. Without man themselves, all icons would be nothing. Throwing a none church blessed icon is not a sin. Unless you are actually throwing it away due to the person that is representing it. You can’t throw away a Saint or Jesus because you can’t touch them anyway. If you feel guilty about it don’t throw it away, but if you put it in a box in the addict wont you be doing the same thing?
But I will give you all an advise… Stop reading books that have more Icons than “The Word of God” and read the book of God it self and you will understand more if you ask Him to give you the wisdom to.