John Paul II's relic: Samples of Pope's blood will be honored during beatification

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This is just the sort of thing that opponents to Catholicism have trouble with.

John Paul was a great man and a great leader. But keeping his blood as some kind of holy artifact?

This is nothing short of idolatry.
 
Soulman said:
This is just the sort of thing that opponents to Catholicism have trouble with.

John Paul was a great man and a great leader. But keeping his blood as some kind of holy artifact?

This is nothing short of idolatry.
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Why is it idolatry? Keeping relics is a Catholic tradition which, along with many of our traditions, is not subject to approval by those outside of our faith community.
 
I don’t think it’s idolatry, I understand the whole relics thing, but blood? It just seems creepy to me. That kind of relic is just not for me. :o
 
Soulman said:
This is just the sort of thing that opponents to Catholicism have trouble with.

John Paul was a great man and a great leader. But keeping his blood as some kind of holy artifact?

This is nothing short of idolatry.
Click to expand...
Actually it’s not. It’s a long tradition that dates back to the time of the Apostles to the Apostles themselves. The Apostles used to celebrate mass over the tombs of the martyrs so as to be close to their remains. That’s how we developed the custom of having a stone with a relic on every altar, because you can’t carry around a coffin.

As to interesting relics, we have some:
  1. The blood of St. Januarius
  2. The heart of St. Valentine
  3. The Franciscans keep the tongue of St. Anthony
  4. The Italians have the head of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini and the Americans have her body (with a wax head).
  5. St. Teresa of Avila’s remains were cut into pieces and are actually incorruptible, just not attached to each other. They’re all over the Carmelite Order.
Those are just five examples of rather interesting relics. A blood sample in the 21st century is pretty normal. Almost every hospital has storage units filled with blood samples. When you go in for lab work, they don’t aways throw out your blood when they finish. It is often kept for a long time, in case it is needed for research, especially if you have something interesting in your blood.

Today, with the expansion of forensic medicine, DNA is a big thing. You need those samples until you can record the DNA map. In this case, they’ve explained it very clearly. It was taken for the purpose of a transfusion. The fact that it was kept is not uncommon today. It should be returned to the Church. Now that he will be one of the Blessed, his relics become part of our patrimony.

Whether people of other faiths like it or not, this is our tradition. Something that is offensive to them is something that we should keep in check. Something that they don’t do and are critical of, does not qualify as offensive.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
Actually it’s not. It’s a long tradition that dates back to the time of the Apostles to the Apostles themselves. The Apostles used to celebrate mass over the tombs of the martyrs so as to be close to their remains. That’s how we developed the custom of having a stone with a relic on every altar, because you can’t carry around a coffin.

As to interesting relics, we have some:
  1. The blood of St. Januarius
  2. The heart of St. Valentine
  3. The Franciscans keep the tongue of St. Anthony
  4. The Italians have the head of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini and the Americans have her body (with a wax head).
  5. St. Teresa of Avila’s remains were cut into pieces and are actually incorruptible, just not attached to each other. They’re all over the Carmelite Order.
Those are just five examples of rather interesting relics. A blood sample in the 21st century is pretty normal. Almost every hospital has storage units filled with blood samples. When you go in for lab work, they don’t aways throw out your blood when they finish. It is often kept for a long time, in case it is needed for research, especially if you have something interesting in your blood.

Today, with the expansion of forensic medicine, DNA is a big thing. You need those samples until you can record the DNA map. In this case, they’ve explained it very clearly. It was taken for the purpose of a transfusion. The fact that it was kept is not uncommon today. It should be returned to the Church. Now that he will be one of the Blessed, his relics become part of our patrimony.

Whether people of other faiths like it or not, this is our tradition. Something that is offensive to them is something that we should keep in check. Something that they don’t do and are critical of, does not qualify as offensive.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
Click to expand...
Thank you, Bro. JR! 👍

You said what I wanted to say-but I’m not eloquent enough! :rolleyes:
 
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