St Therese of Lisieux UK Tour
sofieellis
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The relics (actually part of a foot and thigh bone) are currently doing a tour of the UK. Pilgrims are filing into churches and convents to get a glimpse of the casket containing said bones.
As an ex-catholic, it's something I feel really uncomfortable with and I'm interested to know what others, including practising catholics think about it.
Apart from the fact that I can't really understand what was remarkable about this woman when she was alive, I find it disrespectful to her to split up her bones and parade them round the globe. It just seems incredibly undignified to me.
She admittedly had a tragic life, but that doesn't make her a saint really, does it? Plus, the tragedy in her life, just makes me feel even more strongly that she should be left in peace now she is dead.
I really don't want to start a major religious row on here, but I'd love to hear others' views on this.
As an ex-catholic, it's something I feel really uncomfortable with and I'm interested to know what others, including practising catholics think about it.
Apart from the fact that I can't really understand what was remarkable about this woman when she was alive, I find it disrespectful to her to split up her bones and parade them round the globe. It just seems incredibly undignified to me.
She admittedly had a tragic life, but that doesn't make her a saint really, does it? Plus, the tragedy in her life, just makes me feel even more strongly that she should be left in peace now she is dead.
I really don't want to start a major religious row on here, but I'd love to hear others' views on this.
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The churches have loads of worthless saints who supposedly did miracles.
I don't believe in this guff as is patently obvious.
All of that said, if that kind of thing floats your boat and its not harming anyone, I guess it doesn't really matter to me what people choose to do!
If anyone else's remains were dug up and spread out between different countries, there would be uproar! I certainly wouldn't like to think that my remains were distributed in this way - not that there's much chance of me being declared a saint any time soon !!
Even though I don't adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church....I liked her whole way of doing small things and that they did matter....she was very interesting to me...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_Lisieux
I am not critical if someone finds this to be helpful to them....but it doesn't actually make any sense to me...
Interesting thread through...
Pretty boxes containing bones can't perform miracles.
I'm a Mass attending Catholic and the whole thing makes me a tad uncomfortable too.
I was wondering what was in that casket exactly, so thanks for explaining.
In my line of work, I deal with bones, so the thought of human bones sitting close to me in a box doesn't bother me at all. I've handled them, and they are not intrinsically disgusting or frightening. I might feel different if they were from someone I knew in life, however.
People have hoarded bits of bone and mementoes from other people since time immemorial. Many of the large long barrrows we have in the UK were once communal tombs, which were re-entered over and over again to redeposit new bodies, and to remove or rearrange existing bones. Similar traditions pop up all over the world from the Neolithic onwards, and in Madagascar, they still continue.
Our horror and discomfort around human remains is cultural and quite recent in origin.
I don't feel horrified by being in the presence of a corpse or other human remanins, I just find it distasteful to disturb someone's remains in this way.
It all becomes a bit more like superstition and less like religion when people think that touching relics will protect them in some way.