'Clamour for free Pope John Paul II relics'

You can't make stuff like this up.

I mean, you can if you're The Onion but this is mainstream media — The Telegraph (U.K.)

Here's Malcolm Moore's story from today's paper.

Clamour for free Pope John Paul II relics

The Vatican has been inundated with more than 160,000 requests for "relics" of the late Pope John Paul II, after offering them free on the internet.

"This began very casually," said Monsignor Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Vicariate of Rome.

"But last week, we received around 5,000 requests from worshippers."

The Vicariate will send a tiny shred of one of John Paul's white papal robes to anyone who visits its website, or sends a fax or letter. The piece of material worn by John Paul is not technically considered a true relic, because he has not yet been sainted.

Instead, it is called an "ex-indumentis" or "from the clothing", a phrase that usually refers to a second-class relic. A first-class relic is usually a piece of a saint's skeleton.

Worshippers who receive the relic also get a prayer card, which thanks God for "having given Pope John Paul II to the Church and for having made the tenderness of your paternity, the glory of Christ's cross and the splendour of the Holy Spirit shine within him".

Mgr Fibbi said the Church had decided to distribute the items after seeing hawkers in St Peter's Square selling fake relics to tourists.

"Selling relics is sacrilegious," he said. "We heard people were rubbing pieces of material on the Holy Father's tomb and then selling them as holy. We decided we would give out pieces of his robe for free. We did not know it would be so popular," he added.

One of John Paul's white robes, called a talare, was donated by Mgr Slawomir Oder, the priest who is in charge of demonstrating that John Paul should be sainted.

"This one robe has provided enough material for very, very many relics. I do not know what we will do when it runs out though. Perhaps we could ask for another one. We shall see," said Mgr Fibbi.

The robe is cut into circular pieces a couple of millimetres in diameter by a monk who works full-time in the Diocesan office.

The number of requests for the relics has caused the office to exceed its postal budget for the year, and it is now asking for a small donation in order to cover its costs.

It said that the cost of mailing a relic, as well as a copy of Totus Tuus, the magazine produced by Pope John Paul's supporters, was around £3 to Britain.

However, Mgr Fibbi said that relics would not be sent out to "collectors" or to "people who simply admired the Holy Father".

He said: "We only really want to send out relics to people to who intend to use them for prayer."

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[via Jane Wildgoose, keeper of the Wildgoose Memorial Library, who appears to have the equivalent of perfect pitch when it comes to what gets me revved up]

Full disclosure: I do not know Jane Wildgoose. I have never met nor spoken with Jane Wildgoose. I have, however, featured her library here back on March 7, 2005, and again in a follow-up post on June 6, 2006.