CHIARA FINALDI: When you go to Lourdes or any other pilgrimage site, the surrounding areas are always full of Catholic knick-knacks.
How do you feel about Catholic merchandise and its place in people’s life of faith?
DAVID RUMMELHOFF: A collection of fifty-nine beads and a tiny crucifix strung together is not a good in itself. It is merely a morally neutral object.
But when those beads serve the purpose of promoting prayer and spiritual communion…in other words, when they become sacramental, then they are a blessing, a gift from God.
Sometimes knick-knacks are nothing more, even though they’re made to be religious items.
But if they truly become a part of a life of faith, then they are to be treasured.
One of the things I appreciate so much about the community of vendors on Peter’s Square is the apparent desire to create things that glorify God and to glorify Him in the act of creating.
Catholic merchandise is good when the craftsman crafts for the glory of God, and it is better still when the customer seeks the same.
REGINA | 45