Josiah Concept Ministries

Catholicism seems to lend itself well to superstition. Reference the St. Joseph statue. A Catholic bookstore near my house sells these little novelty statues of St. Joseph with instructions that if you bury it on the property that you’re trying to sell, it will beseech St. Joseph to help the sale along.

Two articles surfaced in my newsreader this evening that reminded me of the propensity to superstition that Catholics seem to have. The first was a brief article on a request by Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek of Poland requesting that the heart of John Paul II be returned to the cathedral in Poland where the late Pope served as Cardinal.

Now, when I say the “heart of Pope John Paul II,” I literally mean his real heart.  Bishop Pieronek actually wants to exhume the late Pope’s body, remove his heart, and place it as a holy relic in the cathedral.  That way, pilgrims could venerate the heart.  I say, let sleeping Popes lie.

The second article speaks of papal merchandise being in high demand for the Pope’s upcoming U.S. visit.  Now by merchandise, this time I speak of more traditional merchandise like shirts, keychains, and Pope Benedict bobblehead dolls.  Apparently, the archdiocese of New York has set up a website where surfers can purchase any of this merchandise.

Again, two shining examples of Catholic superstition.  What can be gained from a man’s heart in a cathedral?  Nothing–Jesus tells us that the flesh is of no avail.  Though the archdiocese of New York says that spirituality is the goal of papal merchandise, I have to wonder if that is really true.  The goal of any merchandising is making money.  I think that most people know who Pope Benedict is, and therefore “proclaiming the Pope” is not a reasonable goal for this effort.

But it saddens me that Catholics want to proclaim their Pope rather than Jesus.  It is Christ who saves, not Pope Benedict XVI.