www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Relic of cross found in dusty back room at Columbus cathedral

Hey there is a Byzantine Catholic Church here listed.

http://www.kingrichards.com/projects/index.html?section=projects

Thank God they are only selling off the Latinized stuff.

Johan:

Just quickly perusing the site, it looks like they go in and remove the "Holy Things" when a church building is being demolished or desanctified (is that the right term?) for other uses. The things they remove are then placed in a new church building or sold to another church. This is just the feeling I get when browsing the site.

How is this a lack of respect for Holy Things? Would you rather they leave them in the building when it gets demolished or sold to Protestants?

The objectional item I saw in the website was the 17 or so altar stones for sale that the company states contained the relics. You can hardly say "the Latin Church" is to blame for this. I'll reiterate what I said before. The original post addressed one find of a lost relic, hardly evidence that "the Latin Church" has no respect for holy objects. To indict wholesale,"the Latin Church", you indict even the Latin posters on this forum and from the posts I've read I think they would take offense with your indictment of them.

The fact that parishes or dioceses would use the services of a company like King Richard's to save the furnishings proves that there is respect for "holy things".

There is a proper procedure (rite) for "desacralizing" items such as an altar stone, perhaps others more versed than I can give the specifics. At the very least this entails removing relics from the altar stone.

Perhaps we need to have a discussion on what makes an object "holy" and can an object be converted to a "profane" (in the sense of non-religious)use.

Thank you again Deacon John for assuming that we Romans have great respect for those things and places that have been dedicated to assist us as we worship.

The sight of objects which had been used for religious worship being offered for sale for other than religious uses is indeed troubling. I am saddened by that. I am even more saddened by the words of posters who portray our Church as full of disrespectful iconoclasts for lack of a better term. They paint a picture that is false and borders on slanderous and libelous.

I can only trust that the objects have been offered for sale after the proper procedures for removing them from sacred use have been followed.

The discussion that you propose about what makes something or someplace holy and how it could be removed from the role of assisting us to worship would be interesting, I think.

Perhaps those with the appropriate knowledge could discuss how buildings and other objects used by Churches for purposes of worship and veneration are set aside for our use. They could help the rest of us to learn how those places and objects are reduced to use for purposes other than the religious use of the community.

This has been done, sadly, with increasing frequency in the Rust Belt, for example in the diocese of Pittsburgh. The Roman Catholic Church of Pittsburgh has undergone major struggles and anguish because of a loss of population and a declining and aging population of priests. That has led to the painful step of closing parishes and sometimes parish buildings and the removal of objects that had been set aside to assist parishoners to worship because they were not need by the community that was dissolved and assimilated into another parish.

I know that the Code of Canon Law deals with the possibility of reduction of church buildings to profane use. I am not familiar with the process by which this is done.

Perhaps another poster is.

Maybe the discussion could include information on how the Eastern Churches deal with these issues. There was, as I recall, a thread about Eastern Church buildings which had suffered a similar fate.

Again, I thank you and other posters for assuming that almost all of us Roman Catholics treat those things that are sacred as sacred and do not rush out to trample them underfoot.

Steve

That thought occured to me last week. I was driving through a section of Detroit and noticed a church up ahead, old and beautiful, it was topped with Onion domes and a 3 bar cross.

As I drove by, I blessed myself in reverence to the Blessed Sacrement. Then I noticed the sign.

"Mt. Zion Baptist Church"

Sigh...

Dear Brendan:

That was funny but sad, indeed!

AmdG