By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the long-time aide of Pope John Paul II, is in possession of a vial of blood that will become the primary relic of the late Pontiff when he is beatified on May 1.
Polskie Radio is reporting that Cardinal Dziwisz obtained the vial of blood from papal doctors when John Paul was undergoing medical tests just before his death in 2005. The Cardinal said he was advised by then-Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Vals to keep the vial after the Pope died.
The vial of blood will be enclosed in a crystal reliquary and placed in an altar inside the John Paul II Institute in Krakow.
“The practice [of relics] was adopted in the Middle Ages, when many people were illiterate and their knowledge of the world was influenced by magic,” explained Jesuit priest Krzysztof Madel to the UPI.
Cardinal Dziwisz said the use of relics direct people to God, but said he does not want John Paul II’s body to be despoiled for relics.
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