PDF Version

Blood Relic?

28th April, 2011 - Posted by Wolf Paul - No Comments

Unlike many Evangelicals I do not have a lot of problems with devotional aids such as the icons of the Eastern Church, and I don’t see these as necessarily in violation of the Torah’s injunctions against graven images.

The Roman Catholic practice however of collecting and exhibiting relics of so-called “Blesseds” and “Saints” (according to the New Testament all who believe in Jesus are blessed and saints) I find very problematic, because it elevates normal human beings like you and me to some higher pedestal where they become objects of popular piety, in effect “minor gods”.

And when I read that blood samples which were taken for medical purposes from the seriously ill John Paul II a few days before his death will be exhibited in Rome and Cracow as “Blood Relics”, we are entering a rather macabre realm that contributes nothing to a rapprochement or reconciliation of the various Christian traditions.

But it is also interesting that even on the conservative Austrian Roman Catholic portal KATH.NET there are voices which consider this practice inappropriate and macabre and who say that John Paul II is entitled, like everyone else, to all of his earthly remains being interred or destroyed.

Share on Facebook