This answer is as I’ve usually heard:I was curious what the morality is of paying or making a donation for a blessed sacramental? I came across this organization making blessed medals of St. Benedict available, with a donation. I had heard that it was illicit to buy or sell blessed things, is this legit and ok under Catholic canon law/teaching?
In other words, at least as I’ve usually heard it, a blessed item that is being sold should cost as much as the equivalent, “identical” unblessed item. And these are my words, but anyone out there who is selling a blessed item should take explicit care to avoid even the impression of simony; for example, a seller may explicitly disclaim any attempt at “selling a blessing.”Items may be sold; blessings may not. Any blessed item that is sold should be sold for its intrinsic value apart from the blessing. To sell the blessing itself would amount to simony.
One thing that you cannot do with the relics is sell them. Code of Canon Law (CIC) strictly prohibits the sale of relics: “It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics” (CIC 1190 §1). This law pertains to all authentic relics of saints. The New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law ( the commentary) explains that, “The prohibition against selling any sacred relic is expressed in the code’s strongest language, nefas est, meaning ‘it is absolutely forbidden.’ Relics may be given away by their owners, except for the second category of relics which may not be given away without permission of the Apostolic See” (p.1415).