'Rescuing' Relics?

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Maximilian75

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Is it licit to purchase a relic in order to take it out of private hands/ ensure its future safety?
 
Rules change, and Suitbert Mollinger was a priest, but that’s exactly what the proto-pastor of Most Holy Name Parish near Pittsburgh did. Went to Europe and acquired and rescued 5000 relics- brought them all here.

Like I said, rules change, so you might want to speak to the folks at your diocesan office. Its definitely against the rules to SELL a relic, buying may be different.

 
I see no harm in buying a relic if you plan to give it the proper veneration or donate it to a church. As the person above said, the selling of it is the sin, not the “rescuing” of it.

I’d be more concerned with the fact that a lot of the so-called “relics” are fraudulent and are basically ripping people off. So there are not many worth buying unless you really know what to look for.
 
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Of course, how will you know if the relic is real? There are thousands of fakes.
 
If they’re cheap, I wouldn’t say it’s that big of a deal.
 
Many times the sale of relics can be halted by reporting the seller to the proper authorities as most countries have a law against selling human body parts. In the USA, it is illegal to sell a relic unless it is visibly not a piece of human remains or is accompanied by the documentation which states that it is not human remains. The only exception to this are first class relics which are hair, which is legal to sell in the US. If the human remains are seized by relevant authorities, the remains are almost always returned to the proper authorities or next of kin. In this case, those would be either to the Church or to the Religious community to which the Saint belonged.

If no legal recourse can be taken, then I do not believe that it would be illicit to purchase relics to preserve their dignity. I do not know of any canon which prohibits this. I only know of one which prohibits the selling of relics.
 
If you’re talking about the inexpensive “piece of cloth on a holy card” kind that were typically given out in large quantities during the sainthood process, I do not worry about it - many of these are actually resold by Catholic charities and there is a good argument that given the low price, you are buying the holy card for five dollars, and not the attached little piece of relic cloth. I just bought a beautiful holy card of St. Gabriel of Our Mother of Sorrows for like 6 dollars; it supposedly has a relic cloth attached, but the card itself has beautiful old art and is worth the 6 dollars, so if indeed there’s a relic, that is just a bonus gift to me.

It’s when you start paying more money for higher classes of relics, such as second class or even first class, that it becomes an issue in my mind.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Then like I said, unless you personally recognize the relic, there’s too much chance of getting ripped off IMHO.
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It isn’t amateur hour, that’s for sure. If you are going to buy a diamond or anything else of value, if you don’t have the expertise in the field yourself, you hire a knowledgable and trusted broker.
 
What can a first class relic of a saint be used for ? I have a relic of a saint given me by my uncle before he passed away.
 
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