Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Relics risk superstition: Vatican theologian

Vatican theologian and biblical scholar, Monsignor Pietro Principe, has warned that veneration of relics is running the risk of replacing authentic faith with irrational superstition.

The warning came as pilgrims began queuing to pray before the 13th-century remains of St Anthony of Padua, one of the Catholic world's most popular saints, the Times Online reports.

The skeleton of the saint, who is credited by many Catholics with miracle-working powers, went on display in a glass case at St Anthony's Basilica in Padua to mark the transfer of his remains to their final resting place in February 1350.

Monsignor Principe said that the "display of the mortal remains of saints and the cult of relics are part of our tradition".

"However we nowadays run the risk of crossing the boundary from popular devotion to superstition," he warned.

Monsignor Principe, an adviser to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals and former Vatican Secretary of State, said the veneration of relics stretched back to the origins of Christianity.

But there was a temptation to "compensate for empty churches with a boom in religious happenings, substituting miracle-performing sensationalism for authentic faith", he told La Stampa.

He added: "To pray before the body of a saint or his relics means to thank God, who supported his path towards sainthood.

The object of adoration, however, must remain God, not the saint". Relics were "not fundamental for belief, but they can help".
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