Catholics Incensed Over Pope-Blessed Communion Wafer Offered on eBay

Some Catholics are extremely upset because a man placed a holy communion wafer said to have been blessed personally by Pope John Paul II up for sale on the online auction site eBay:

Is nothing sacred anymore? The Catholic Diocese of Sioux City and some individual Roman Catholics from across the country would like to know.

On Tuesday, the diocese and Catholics e-mailing its offices said they were offended that a Holy Communion wafer that was allegedly blessed by Pope John Paul II during an Oct. 18, 1998, Mass in Rome, had been offered for sale on eBay, the online auction site.

Adding injury to insult, it turned out the seller was in Sloan, Iowa, a community within the diocese.

The item was posted for sale on Saturday, with a $100 minimum bid, a 7-day listing and a "Buy It Now" price of $5,000. By 7 p.m. Monday, it had sold for $2,000, allegedly to a man in California.

Source: Sioux City Journal

I'm Christian (but not Catholic) and I really don't have a problem with this. I see holy communion as a sacred symbolic ritual that needs reverence, but the bread or wafer itself once out of the ceremony holds no special significance to me personally. I do understand however that others may come to different conclusions and could be offended by this.

In catholicism, the eucharist literally, not symbolically, changes its substance into the flesh of god (why doesn't it taste like meat? Because the flavour texture, etc, are 'accidents', which don't change, the 'substance' is changed). So a faithful catholic would be properly upset over this.

I find it unlikely that this is real.

I suppose he could've gone to the vatican or whatever, gotten in line for communion, and received it but not eaten it and kept it. But I doubt it, certianly he'd've have to have done it a long time ago.

Also, I think its obvious that he's just capitalizing on the death of the pope, which is in poor taste, so its not surprising that anyone would be upset.

And it sold. (No big suprise, actually).


You know that strange swishing sound you hear getting louder?

That's society flushing reality, pay no attention.

Now all I need is to see a ebay item for something akin to:

NIB!! Super Holy Tortialla w/ image of Virgin Mary which was blessed by Pope JPII on deathbed PICS INSIDE

And the dark comedian in me will be at peace....for now.



X

Yeah, I agree the authenticity of this wafer as truly having been blessed by the Pope is in serious question.

This is very sad, that E-bay has become a place for targeting faith, I find it immoral.

I am not religious follower but I find despicable when others are taking advantage off.

There is some really weird stuff on ebay. I've seen john titors time machine. A 'Stitch' character doll that was possses. A baby demon that was growing in somone's fridge. Another time machine that sold for over 300 bucks. And, amazingly, an item titled something like Brand New photo of Gameboy Advanced" that sold for a few hundred or something.

Incredible.

I find this offensive. Selling a communion wafer over the internet. How blasphomous

As a matter of fact I ate a wafer that was blessed by the Pope today. My family is devout Catholic, and I have even met JPII once, and my parents have twice.

I know my wafer was legitamate, but the one on e-bay..........well...... it is hard to say.

My Gosh is there no end to the contraversy surrounding the Church I am not Catholic but dont you have to attend a service to get a wafer in the first place not to mention to have it blessed by the Pope .....this is an appauling insult to the memory of a man that in his efforts only wished to be closer to God personally.....The selling of the wafer as a keep sake obviously was with the intent of financial gain not to honor of the Pope otherwise why not give the wafer to the Vatican library if you wish to display in honor ....and by the way did this ding bat miss the part where the wafer is a symbol of the flesh of Christ and by taking it into yourself you have symbolized repentance and salvation by taking Christ into yourself ......someone missed the point and didnt get saved that day me thinks.

[edit on 14/4/2005 by drbryankkruta]

Wouldn’t the representation of the Son of God dyingon...lets say a T-Shirt, or a stationary, gift card, a hat, a necklace...a poster be more exploitative than a Pope-Blessed Communion Wafer.

Come on Catholics, get a sense of capitalism.

Originally posted by Simulacra
Wouldn’t the representation of the Son of God dyingon...lets say a T-Shirt, or a stationary, gift card, a hat, a necklace...a poster be more exploitative than a Pope-Blessed Communion Wafer.

Come on Catholics, get a sense of capitalism.

And you can bet I own none of the above out of respect even the avatars I use are of a living Christ as subject matter who I admire and his angels not to exploit his death for gain never do I try to display any accepted picture of Christ himself.....I never held higher the sacrifice given for me to be saved and therefore do not offer up even cards or crosses with Christ hanging on them, there are some things that even in the days of the bible's writing that the authors where told not to illustrate and as such I feel I have no right to illustrate things such as these myself ....my crosses dont even bear the name of Christ but only the cross as a plain reminder to me myself that I have been blessed. I do not even display the cross in the open not outa disrespect but because it is on my chest close to my heart and for my personal reminder only. And if anyone knows of my avatars they to have no crosses on them for the same reason nor do they have the intent of illustrating anything forbidden to the 12 by God.

[edit on 14/4/2005 by drbryankkruta]

[edit on 14/4/2005 by drbryankkruta]

Originally posted by omega1
As a matter of fact I ate a wafer that was blessed by the Pope today.

Really? How? He blesses batches and they are shipped out?

That seems rather pointless, to tell the truth. A wafer transubstantiated by a local preist is the same as a wafer transubstantiated by the pope. I mean, its, literally, a novelty to have it done by the preist.

If the RCC is doing that, then i see no reason to get too upset over someone selling one of these novelty wafers.

I find this in very poor taste and extremely disrepectful - downright vulgar and I am not christian in any sense of the word.

I have been wondering when some enterprising soul would use eBay to revive the practice of selling indulgences (the Catholic "Get-Out-of-Hell-Free Cards" that the RCC used for several centuries). You ask Catholics where are their senses of capitalism? The RCC had the greatest scam in the history of the world going for a very long time - selling full or partial delieverences from hell and guaranteed forgivenesses of sins with the blessings (and encouragement) of at least a dozen Popes. And, I bet nobody ever asked for their money back!

Everyone getting upset over this is missing something. Most of the world is not Catholic not even Christian. WHy would anyone who does not buy into all the mythology that Christianity is based on give a hoot about a small piece of un-leavened bread? C'mon people the world is run by money.

Damn, that's clever....immoral, but clever...

*marches off to buy a pack of communion wafers*

Maybe I can one up him and sell some holy water blessed by the Pope?

Don't steal my idea!!!

[edit on 14-4-2005 by Gazrok]

ok look you can sell prety much anything on e-bay.a good chunk of it is useless garbage but it seems that people will still buy it. personaly i'm surprised i haven't yet heard of pieces of the cross on sale yet. or any other useless fake relic for that matter. just think of all that lost income. why you could buy your own piece of saint to pray at in comfort of your own home. not even a holy hub-cap off the pope mobile.

heck selling holy artifacts used to be quite common a few hundred years ago. so why such upset now? easy because now you see such practices as a mokery of your faith. not as being benificial for your faith. personaly i think the odds are quite high that it is a fake, just like many artifacts from ages past.

don't take offense at it. you should be laughing that someone actualy paid for such an item of their own free will. from what i have seen on e-bay it is buyer beware. you can buy many usefull objects amoung the garbage that is for sale. it is up to the buyer to decide if what they buy is benifical or not. something you think is worthless can be as valuble as gold for someone. a caarbourator from a 1929 buick would be useless to most of us but for one who owns a 1929 buick without a carbourator, it would be almost priceless.

if you don't like a holy wafer for sale just do not buy it. if you feel it is a mockery why don't you buy it and see that it is destroyed. the choice is yours.

you know it is highly doubtful this wafer was blessed by JP2. For the simple fact he places it directly on your tongue.

Also catholics used to have a thing about not even chewing it, but letting it melt in your mouth.

But how Catholics handle communion in itself is similar to Pharasies of old who are more concerned about tradition, and perofrming it a certain way then actaully doing what is really important... strengthing faith thru the use of the Word

If catholics don;t like it, don't buy it, or at least complain that it is a farud

On a dark note - SATANISTS who coddle the dark forces break into
Catholic churches to steal consecrated hosts (NOT WAFERS!!) and use
them in their black masses. The person who bought it could very well
be a satanist who is practicing the dark arts and wants to mock
Christ - who is truly present body, blood, soul, and divinity in that
consecrated host.

The guy isn't Catholic. He had no business going to Catholic
communion. Non-Catholics are not allowed to receive holy communion
in the Catholic church except under special conditions that the priest
has to approve of. The idiot calls it 'the wafer' .. he doesn't even
know that he received CHRIST. Then he sells Christ ... much as Judas
sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver 2,000 years ago.

SICKENING!

The rule about non-Catholics not being allowed Holy Communion in
Catholic churches is a good one. This idiot doesn't understand what
he received ... let alone what he sold. He mocks the church that he
received the holy communion from. UGH

E-bay is a device for selling things. As long as you're not full of it, I see no reason to not sell anything you want. E-bay has their own rules, which is fine, but if you're safe under the rules, then go ahead. People might be offended, but people are offended by lots of things. Saying satanism is sickening is offensive to a satanist.

Nothing wrong with making a buck or two thousand.