I’m looking to buy a rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II. There seem to be plenty out there that aren’t that expensive. Is this a common scam item?
(FTR, I’m agnostic so anti-religious snark would just get in my way of a real answer)
As I recall, there used to be Bibles “blessed by the Pope”, but that didn’t mean that he personally held it in his hands and impressed it with all the beneficence his soul could summon. It meant that he walked into a warehouse full of Bibles and waved his hands around, muttered some Latin and went back home again.
This rosary may indeed have been blessed by the Pope, but it doesn’t follow that it was done on a one-at-a-time basis.
Hm. As far as I know, it’s not possible to sell a blessed item. If a blessed item is sold, the blessing disappears, because it’s supposed to be for a specific person, and the new owner needs to get it blessed all over again. Some stores sell items and then get them blessed after the purchase is made (supposedly).
That’s not what a Catholic priest told me. There may be a prohibition about selling, but merely changing ownership doesn’t change the blessing.
Also, I’ll point out that it’s really easy to get something blessed by the Pope. The priest I was talking about just went to a conference where the Pope was speaking, and, at the end, the Pope asked everyone to hold up items they wanted blessed, and he said a prayer. There were thousands of people there.
I thought the way it works is that someone in Italy takes mass quantities (no pun intended) to mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, where the Pope gives a general blessing.
A rosary has no power, blessed or not, it is saying the prayers that is supposed to be powerful. It’s just supposed to be cool to use one blessed by the Pope or your local priest. It’s like having a baseball autographed by Mickey Mantle. It doesn’t make you a better baseball player, but you can impress your friends with it.
It is a bit like 'consecrating" a cemetary-how does the earth 'know" that it is sacred?
Mostly a ceremony for the attendees-and object (by itself) has no spiritual significance-save that accorded it by its owner.
Yeah, I’ve been to a few papal audiences in the square and the big hall, and he just blesses anything you happen to hold up at the appropriate moment. I have a Michelin Guide to Rome imbued with Peter’s spiritual legacy. They’re not lying when they say the rosary’s been blessed by the pope, but they are allowing you perhaps to assume something that isn’t true (i.e. up close and personal individual blessing of that single item).