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

This is unbelievable to me. How could someone loose a relic of the Cross! Thank God they found it, I bet the deacon was shaking when he held it in his hand and realized what he had.

Relic of cross found in dusty back room at Columbus cathedral

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNS) -- On an ordinary day last May, Deacon James Gorski made an extraordinary find: a relic of the true cross in a dusty back room at St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus. As one of the deacons at the cathedral, Deacon Gorski was looking around the building for a place to store some outdated electronic equipment. He discovered a suitable area above the second sacristy on the east side of the cathedral, where he found an array of jumbled items and clutter. As he began sorting through boxes, he noticed a small, tattered wooden box at the bottom of a large cardboard box. When he opened the tattered box, he saw an object wrapped in transparent paper. After removing the paper, Deacon Gorski was shocked to discover he was holding a carved, golden reliquary encasing what appeared to be a remnant of the true cross. Paper on the bottom of the relic contained a March 9, 1733, statement by Archbishop Joseph Maria Martelli of Florence, Italy, that "the sacred relics as exhibited and described below in our presence are taken from authentic places" and "are clearly particles of the wood of the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ."

Here is the link

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20030917.htm

Forgive me for asking this, but all I could think of, is how in the world would anyone have 'thrown this reliquary aside'? Why wasn't it in the altar?

In Christ,
Alice

I'm probably going to catch heck about this but I'm a former RC so here goes. In many Churches if they have a relic of the true Cross it is many times buried in the sacristy somewhere.I used to take care of Altar linens etc at my former parish so I know.The woman who was the Pastoral Associate at the time told me that if they put together all supposed pieces of the true cross it would make a forest.So in other words she didn't believe they are pieces of the True Cross. Nothing like folks who officially can speak for the Church undermining a persons faith. On a good note a local GO Monastery once a year has a Fr. Starvros come from Rythemon Crete with a relic of the True Cross.It has many healing miracles associated with it.


Nicky's Baba

I wonder if all those pieces of the True Cross is something like the feeding of the five thousand with two fishes and 5 loaves of bread?

It was probably right next to the torn out altars, the discarded vestments, and all the statues. Back in the seventies, if you time it right, you could go by the local R.C. Church and pick up all you needed to furnish your own chapel. Very sad.

The Latin Church has NO respect for Holy Things anymore! No Respect!

I think this is because they do not believe in Holy Things. Of course, how could you blame them when you have nuns who have prayer services that look like a Wicca convention and ask Mother God to bless them.

Johan,

It is inappropriate to make such sweeping generalizations about the Latin Church. Who knows underwhat circumstances the reliquary found its way into that box. Would one also accuse the Jerusalem Church of having no respect for the Holy Cross because It too was lost? The article does not say how the relic found its way into the area. Please show some restraint, the article mentions nothing about Wicca.

Instead we should celebrate the fact that the deacon found the relic of the True Cross. How appropriate during the post-festive period. i wonder if Deacon James' middle name is Allen?

I had read this accusation as well in an anti-Catholic publication. Yet, a group sought to catalogue the authentic relics of the True Cross, and discovered the relics would not even make up the cross bar. So much for anti-Catholic propoganda.

Save Your people, O Lord, and bless Your inheritance; grant victory to Your Church over her enemies and protect Your people by Your cross.

Deacon John Montalvo posted:

"It is inappropriate to make such sweeping generalizations about the Latin Church. Who knows underwhat circumstances the reliquary found its way into that box. Would one also accuse the Jerusalem Church of having no respect for the Holy Cross because It too was lost? The article does not say how the relic found its way into the area, so please show some restraint, when the article mentions nothing about Wicca."

Thank you, Deacon John.

Steve

Deacon John and the Group,

I agree my post above sounded harsh because there are many Catholics who have great respect for Holy Things. However you can just as many wackos out there who are trying to destroy the church. What�s worse is some of these wackos are Bishops and other religious. They are destroying beautiful churches and replacing them with Protestant looking worship space. In the process they are selling off the holy things.

Then when they do have holy things around they don't treat them as such.

Here is an example of an event that I would not think is placing the best interest of the Church first.


[Linked Image]
Sister Martha

Is it possible that someone donated the reliquary to the parish, and they didn't have anywhere suitable to put it? Maybe it was then placed in the storage room until they could create a nice spot for it, and it got forgotten. Perhaps the priest or whoever put it there retired, died, etc. before anything was done with it. Things like that happen. No need to start pointing fingers when we don't know the whole story.

Tammy,

I agree with you but unfortunately there are countless examples of bishop/priest going against Vatican orders by selling off Church holy things. Also there are countless examples of holy things that once where in Churches taken out of Churches and placed in storage sheds for the "Spirit of Vatican II." It is hard to determine who is innocent and who is just trying to destroy the Church.

Agreed, that is why it is important to show restraint and not discuss beyond the scope of the article.