CATHOLICS have some pretty cock-eyed ideas, especially in regard to the bits and pieces of departed “holy” characters. These, they believe, possess “miraculous” properties.
Jesus’s foreskin is a case in question. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess the snipped end of Christ’s cock – sometimes at the same time!
According to the author David Farley, who wrote Fore Shame:
Several hundred years on and Catholics’ bizarre faith in the healing properties of grisly relics remains undiminished.
Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand holds a glass reliquary containing the blood of the late Pope John Paul II during his beatification mass in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 1, 2011.
A report today says that a vial containing the late pope John Paul II’s blood will soon be winging its way to Mexico in a bid to help bring down crimes rates in the largely Catholic country.
An episcopal conference in Mexico has requested that the relic be sent over and, according to Vatican Radio, the “relic”will arrive in the country on August 17 before being taken to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
A week later the vial of blood from the “blessed” Pope John Paul, a title he acquired posthumously after his successor Benedict XVI beatified him in May, will be taken on a pilgrimage to other Catholic dioceses around the country.
The relic will be accompanied by a statue of the late Polish pope, born Karol Wojtyla, with the intended message one of reconciliation.
Killings in parts of Mexico have shot up in recent years amid a military crackdown on organized crime and drug cartels which has sent soldiers onto the streets.
Mexican bishops, in a statement broadcast on Vatican Radio, said:
The reminder of John Paul II and the love he had for our country should push us to reinforce the faith of the Mexican people, at a time when our nation is undergoing profound social change.
Several vials of blood were taken from Pope John Paul II during the last days of his life in 2005.
This means that a few are left over to quell social unrest elsewhere.
David Cameron, please take note.
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