Friday, November 24, 2006
TRAFFIC IN RELICS
NOR links an AP story about Los Angeles resident Tom Serafin's ongoing attempt to sponsor a boycott of E-Bay which opened last year. According to the article E-Bay representative Hani Durzy said "we've really seen no impact to speak of. We don't know if it's even still in place."
A major source of the relics as the article explains it is the closing of churches. It would be interesting to trace the chain of events that brought a relilc from a church to a listing on E-Bay. Are we to believe that dioceses are selling relics on E-Bay when a church is closed? That doesn't seem likely. Are they falling into the hands of a secular establishment that liquidates goods from closing churches? Or is it that the AP has got it wrong and this is not the source? That's assuming that the relics are genuine. They may not be, of course.
Serafin is fighting a losing battle when he tries to persuade Catholics to abandon E-Bay. Perhaps a better approach for Catholics who are troubled by this would be to set up a non-profit that seeks to buy up relics as they come on the market, and offer them to Catholics who are interested in purchasing them.
