NZ Catholic: September 25 - October 8, 201112 13NZ Catholic: September 25 - October 8, 2011ADVERTISING FEATURE: PILGRIMAGES

by CAROL GLATZ

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A saint’s lock of hair, bone shards, a vial of blood, even a severed hand whose discoloured fingers curl in a macabre way are vener-ated by many members of the Catholic Church.

Others may just get the heebie-jeebies and wonder why holy people’s body parts are even put on display.

But if one believes these men and women lived holy lives and accomplished extraordinary things, “wouldn’t you want a souvenir,” a way to connect and remember that person and what they’ve done, said Elizabeth Lev, an art historian and professor of art history at the Rome campuses of Duquesne University and the University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota.

The relic becomes a concrete reminder that the blessed’s or saint’s body is here on earth and his or her soul is with God, she said.

“It feels like you’ve got almost like a hotline into heaven,” she said. The relic is “something we can see and touch, and it becomes our portal to a world we cannot see and cannot touch”.

In the Catholic Church, relics fall into one of three categories: A first-class relic is the physical bodily re-mains of a saint or blessed, like bones, blood and hair; a second-class relic is a personal possession, such as clothing, devotional objects, handwritten letters or even furniture; and a third-class relic is an object that has touched a first-class relic. These — usually small snips of cloth that have touched a blessed or saint’s tomb — often end up in public distribution fixed onto prayer cards.

In early Christian times, small holes were often made to run vertically down into a saint’s tomb or even straight into the sarcophagus so that devotional items could be lowered onto the tomb’s surface or come in contact with the relics of the saint.

Creating such third-class relics became very popular in the late fourth-century in Rome after Em-peror Theodosius banned the sale and distribution of corporal relics.

The sale of any relic is staunchly prohibited in the Church. eBay has banned the sale of body parts, and Church officials have called the sale of relics on the Internet sacrilege.

Nonetheless, demand for relics, mostly third-class relics, of Pope John Paul II skyrocketed after it became clear that he was on the fast track to sainthood. The promoters of his cause, who were giving out third-class relics for free, had to publicly state repeatedly that relics are never for sale.

A relic has no special or magical powers, Lev said. It would be a mistake to believe any object, even a holy object, can be a sort of “remote control” to make God do one’s bidding or fulfil some heartfelt wish.

It’s true some saints, objects, shrines and icons seem “more efficacious” than others in connecting people to God, Lev said. But it’s not the object or the site bringing grace or a miracle; it is only a channel, an instrument through which God chooses to act.

“God controls what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it,” she said.

Even in the modern secularised West, tours of saints’ relics have been enormously popular.

More than a quarter of a million people turned out to see the relics of St Therese of Lisieux when her remains toured cities and villages throughout predominantly Anglican England and Wales in 2009. Massive crowds also flocked to see her remains dur-ing a United States tour in 1999, surprising even the event planners.

The huge turnouts sparked curiosity in the secular media and questions about why relics would attract so many people, including non-believers.

L e v s a i d an over-secu-larised world that rejects the divine and embraces the finite and man-made “leaves a void in peo-ple, a hunger to know that there is more” than just life and death on earth.

by CINDY WOODEN

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican commission studying the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herze-govina held its first meeting in late March last year.

While the Vatican press office provided no details about the meeting, it published the names of the commission members on April 13, 2010.

The Vatican had announced on March 17 that year that, at the request of the bishops of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Con-gregation for the Doctrine of

the Faith had established an international commission to investigate the claims of six young people who said Mary appeared to them daily, begin-ning in 1981.

Although the apparitions apparently are continuing and thousands of people travel to the small town each month to meet the alleged seers and to pray, the Catholic Church has never made a formal declaration about the authenticity of the apparitions.

The doctrinal congregation appointed retired Cardinal Ca-millo Ruini, former papal vicar

of Rome, to head the commis-sion, which will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican said the commis-sion members include: Slovaki-an Cardinal Jozef Tomko, retired prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sara-jevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Span-ish Cardinal Julian Herranz, re-tired president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts; and Arch-bishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes and former secretary of

Who is investigating Medjugorje?Relics are still relevant by TERRI D’ATH

PAPAKURA, Auckland — A very hectic six months of fund-raising was needed to get the $60,000 needed to get 10 young parishioners from St Mary’s, Papakura, to Medjugorje at the end of June for the 30th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions there.

When we finally left earlier this year, we were quite amazed to find ourselves actually on the plane and headed in the direction of Hong Kong, Rome, and then Split in Croatia. It was a flight we were not sure was going to happen, because we had several major block-ages in our way.

Firstly, three of the young people in our party attend university and needed to leave

two days before their holidays started. But they found out they had exams on the last day and also one major exam during the holidays.

After many emails to the university’s vice chancellor requesting that they be able to sit the exams earlier — to no avail — it was decided they would come later and join us there. Which meant they only had one full day in Medjugorje, after very long flights totalling more than 25 hours.

It is a statement about their faith that they were willing to do this.

Then we had the worry of the ash cloud from the Chilean volcano possibly stopping us taking off. But thanks to many prayers being answered, our airline took the risk and

off we flew. The rest of the teens had a marvellous

pilgrimage, starting with a lovely surprise of arriving thinking we had missed the special apparition at the Blue Cross that night, as our bus trip from Split took longer than expected. But we found that the apparition had been postponed until 11pm that night.

We had 15 minutes to get there, so dumped our luggage and ran up the road to the hill. We now claim Our Blessed Mother had waited for us “Kiwis” to arrive.

We spent seven days in that holy valley, and even had the great privilege of being in-vited to seer Ivan Dragicevic’s private chapel to attend his daily apparition with Our Lady. It was so special, first saying the Rosary with Ivan and then just being so close to him and The Virgin Mary in that small chapel. Every-one was touched in some way by this expe-rience. Our parish priest, Fr Peter Murphy, was invited back the next night for another apparition. Other priests were also invited.

All of the youth, even the three who came late, said it was everything they had hoped for and more. They feel really grounded in their faith from the experience. They all gave great testimonials back home.

The young people and Fr Murphy have started a “special adoration night” once a month where we have the same format as the wonderful adoration nights in Medjugorje. We even have the beautiful violin music and the prayers said in our different languages.

We had a few days in Rome on the way home and saw all the Vatican treasures and did a day trip to Assisi.

The young people on the pilgrimage were accompanied by eight adults — one being Fr Murphy.

It was all well worth the hassles we had beforehand.

St Mary’s, Papakura, parish priest Fr Peter Murphy, with pilgrims to Medjugorje, including young people from Papakura.

the doctrinal congregation.The other commission mem-

bers are: French Msgr Tony Anatrella, a psychoanalyst; Msgr Pierangelo Sequeri, a theology professor in Milan, Italy; Franciscan Father David Jaeger, a canon lawyer; Conven-tual Franciscan Father Zdzislaw Jozef Kijas, an official at the Congregation for Saints’ Causes; Marianist Father Salvatore M. Perrella, a professor of Mariol-ogy in Rome; and Father Achim Schutz, a professor of theologi-cal anthropology in Rome.

Pol ish Msgr Krzysztof Nykiel, an official at the doctri-

nal congregation, was named secretary of the commission.

The four consultants assisting the commis-sion are: Fr Franjo Topic, a professor of theology in Sarajevo; Jesuit Father Mijo Nikic, professor of psychology at the Jesuit university in Zagreb, Croatia; Jesuit Father Mihaly Szentmartoni, a professor of spirituality in Rome; and Sr Veronika Nela Gaspar, a professor of theology in Rijeka, Croatia, and a member of the Daughters of Di-vine Charity.

n According to the Swiss-based Interna-tional Catholic Press Agency, Cardinal Ruini said in June, 2011, that the commission of in-quiry is “still far from being able to publish an official judgment” concerning the alleged Marian apparitions of Medjugorje.

Papakura pilgrims visit Medjugorje

The hand of St Francis Xavier in a reliquary at the Jesuits’ Church of the Gesu in Rome (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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Road Retreats

Journey on pilgrimage through Aotearoa New Zealand to experience the history of the

Catholic Church in New Zealand.

Inaugural South Island Retreat

13-20 November 2011Road Retreats are a combination of pilgrimage and retreat designed to give Catholics an opportunity to celebrate their New Zealand Church. These are eight-day bused retreats travelling through the North and South Islands with visits taking in Church history, Catholic spirituality, present-day apostolate, education and formation centres, Church art and music and reflection time in relaxed atmospheres.• Spiritual director journeys with the group• Accommodation and breakfasts, dinners,

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