Dear Josephine:

Any rosary, medal or scapular and the like, I suppose, technically, may be sold for its normal market value, but it is the crime of simony to sell a blessing. It is a canonical crime to sell a relic. While the reliquary can be sold, the relic inside cannot.

Those persons who sell relics, such as on eBay, for prices that far exceed the value of the reliquary (the container) are, regardless of their protestations, selling the relic and thus committing a spiritual crime.

For other things that are not relics, such as the rosaries, medals, and scapulars the same issue applies to those who would sell an object for more than its intrinsic value because it has been blessed.

Any object that has been blessed (other than a relic) may be sold for its intrinsic value, even if it is blessed. But, once sold that blessing ceases and it must be blessed again.

This does not apply to objects given away. For example, in our deliverance apostolate we sometimes provide blessed salt and blessed medals, but that is given to our clients at no charge (we do not even charge for postage).

As for Rome, we need to be more specific. There are all sorts of hawkers of items near the Vatican selling all sorts of trinkets, sometimes very tacky items. Some of those merchants may claim to have relics and blessed objects. Do not trust them when they say they have relics, and realize that any alleged blessed item they sell will no longer have its blessing once sold. Also, be sure to not buy the item for more than it would be worth without an alleged blessing.

What reputable merchants do, is to have the item blessed for you, if you wish them to do that, after you buy it. Such a service must be free-of-charge. This is the policy of the Cukierski Family Apostolate, for example.

At the Vatican itself, items may be blessed after they have be purchased. For example, people will bring already purchased rosaries, medal, scapulars, papal photographs, etc. when they are present at one of the large audiences with the Pope. The Pope will bless all those items en masse. For example, I have a photograph of Pope John-Paul II blessed by the him in one of those audiences; and a photograph of Pope Benedict XVI bless by him also in one of those audiences.

Concerning getting rid of blessed items, if one does not wish to keep a blessed medal, rosary, scapular, or other object that has been blessed, technically, they may sell it but they must not sell it as a blessed object. Unless one is a merchant, I fail to see why a private person would sell such an item anyway. If one does not want it, then give it away.

One may not, however, just throw away a blessed object. If the item has worn out, or has been damaged beyond repair, the blessed item needs to be destroyed. That means, for example, dismantling the rosary, or cutting up a scapular. Once a blessed item no longer resembles the item it was meant to be, the blessing ceases. (this is also true, by the way, with cursed objects--once destroyed the curse on the item is broken).

Even after the item has been dismantled or destroyed it should really be buried in the ground, if possible, instead of placed in the garbage. In some instances burying in the ground may be impossible depending on where people live.

As for medals, unless a person is going to melt it down, destroying it so that it no longer resembles the medal will be difficult. In that case, if one truly cannot find someone to give it to, then bury it in the ground.

But, for any blessed item that is not worn out or that cannot be repaired, just drop it off to the nearest parish and leave it in the foyer if nothing else.

The bottomline is that we must have respect for that which has been given a holy blessing. A blessing is, as it were, the fingerprint of God upon that item. A blessing makes the item holy and thus needs to be treated accordingly.

Why do people not understand these things? For the some of the same reasons I mentioned in another post:

• Worldly Mind
• Distraction causing deafness to the Holy Spirit
• Peer pressure to conform
• Uninformed about the Faith
• Laziness about the Faith
• Just not paying attention to the Faith and the Spirit
• lack of courage to be counter-cultural

It is sad.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary