The following comes from an August 12 Catholic News Agency article by Mary Rezac:
Ryan Scheel was shopping for a rosary on eBay when one listing caught him off guard. A first class relic of the bone of a saint, still in its wax-sealed reliquary, was listed for sale – to the tune of $3,600. “The listing was crass enough to even describe the relic as ‘ex ossibus,’ a Latin term meaning ‘from the bones,’” Scheel told CNA e-mail comments.
He decided to further search the online auction site, and found “pages and pages” of other first class relics for sale, violating eBay’s own policy that prohibits the sale of human body parts, other than human scalp hair. Scheel, who is also the founder and editor of the Catholic resource site uCatholic, said he tried to use eBay’s “Report Item” feature in order to alert the site of the first class relics, but he said the closest option given from the available drop-down list states: “The item in this listing is an artifact, fossil, or relic taken from federal or state public land or Native American land or battlefield.”
The listing of first class relics “is incredibly insensitive to the Catholic faith in way I doubt would be tolerated for other religions,” Scheel said. “But also…common decency should tell eBay that profiting off of the sale of body parts is ghastly and unethical, no matter who the remains belonged to in life.”
That’s why Scheel decided to launch a petition calling for eBay to remove the listings of the first class relics. He hopes to obtain signatures from at least 25,000 Catholics in order to alert the site of the illicit sales.
However, Scheel said “eBay should also forbid this out of common respect for the Catholic Faith.” Code of Canon Law 1190 states that it is “absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics,” whether or not they are human remains.
JD Flynn, a canon lawyer and director of communications for the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska said that it may be permissible for Catholics to buy the listed relics in order to protect them from further harm or desecration. “For example, it would be hard to justify getting into a bidding war with other devout Catholics for a relic, but it would be easy to understand getting into a bidding war for a relic with the owners of some hipster bar that wants relics for decorations,” Flynn said. “But in such a situation, the merchant is obviously engaged in simony,” the sacrilegious practice that consists in buying and selling what is spiritual (relics) in return for what is temporal (money).
Horrible. However, I have to say at the start that I “own” a first class ex-ossibus relic of the first American Saint,. Elizabeth Ann Seton. It was sold to me at her shrine in Maryland. Now, the sale of relics is (wisely) forbidden, so what they sold me was the sealed reliquary. I’ve never once thought of selling it, and certainly not on E-bay. Most likely, when I am gone and buried my relatives won’t know what it is and throw it away. Yes, I know…I need to make sure that doesn’t happen. But I digress…
But what is the difference if someone sells the reliquary at a Catholic shrine, or on E-bay? Not a whole lot, except that in the one case it goes to the good of the Church, and in the other, it goes to the good of the person…
At St. Mary Parish in Escondido, CA are 45 relics with Vatican documentation in 2 locked vitrines for display and veneration on either side the Blessed Sacrament in the 24 hour perpetual adoration chapel. They were rescued by Mr. Clayton Bower (RIP) from online sites, and given back to the Catholic Church through that parish.
Is there any listing of who’s relics reside at St Mary’s Parish?
Thank you.
This practice was VERY common when old Churches in Chicago were being closed by the late Crdl Bernardin.. It was said that the pressure that mounted against the practice and him was what prompted him to change the subject and go to Fordham to proclaim his very flawed yet popularly received, as it still is, The Consistent Ethic of Life.
Do things actually change, much less improve in our culture? As Descarte said, I think NOT!
Buying and selling relics was common practice in the Medieval period.
A horrible, irreverent, disrespectful SACRILEGE!! I signed the petition– and hope eBay puts an end to this evil These relics are HOLY and belong in a CHURCH!!!
Somebody is selling them to persons who put them on ebay. Perhaps when churches close or give up belief in the Saints and veneration of them and their relics, somebody (like the Bishop) ought to protect sacred treasures of the Church. Not the case…many liturgical items have been thrown away in the trash can or sold by clergymen.