Posted on 08/29/2007 8:04:23 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
ROME, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Pilgrims on the Vatican's fledgling airline were stunned to discover that holy water from Lourdes, in southwest France, cannot be taken on board for security reasons, media reports said Wednesday.
French security officers seized the liquid -- reputed to have miracle-giving qualities -- under a Europe-wide anti-terrorism rule that forbids more than 100 millilitres (3.5 British ounces) in each passenger's carry-on baggage.
One pilgrim was so distraught that he drank the holy water on the spot, rather than surrender it to the authorities, Italy's Il Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Holy water from Lourdes has a price. One French website, lourdes-water.com, offers a one-litre (35 British ounce) plastic bottle for 100 euros (135 dollars).
Lourdes, a major European centre for Christian pilgrimage, is the first destination for the new air service created under a five-year deal between Mistral Air and the Vatican's pilgrimage bureau.
Service is to be expanded in 2008 to other places sacred to Roman Catholics, including Fatima in Portugal, Santiago di Compostella in Spain and the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico.
Already posted...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1888266/posts?page=7
Sheeesh....and from a church.
I trust someone someplace knows this is dishonest. (And I'm sure someone will ask me why. :>)
Definitely a thread that deserves highjacking.
How do you get holy water?
Boil the hell out of it!
That's just silly. First of all, my Googling of the website "lourdes-water.com" came up with no such web address. Second, Lourdes water is available for a donation of any size (translation: a dollar or two for a three-ounce bottle, less if you don't have even that) here in the US, and *no one* would charge $135 for one liter! Any reputable distributor would charge for packaging and shipping costs only, and that would be far, far less than is noted here in the article. This is either a typical MSM botch-job, or Expatica must have aspirations a la "The Onion."
That’s dissappointing. However, so long as they don’t invite the vampires to enter, it shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m sure that they will soon start offering 15ml sizes that can clear airport security.
Sloppy reporting - the site is lourdes-water.org, not .com. They do sell Lourdes water for 100 Euros a liter, though. - http://www.lourdes-water.org/buy/lourdes-water-p-36.html
This doesn’t appear to be a website connected with the actual Catholic Church. It appears to have a link to a schismatic site that claims that all the popes from Blessed John XXIII on were/are heretics.
sitetest
Even so, no reputable distributor would charge such a price, and the authorities at Lourdes who grant concessions to distributors would never allow such exorbitant rates. Given that lourdes-water.org also links to products from Medjugorje, a highly dubious “apparition site,” one wonders how well affiliated they are with the Church to get a distributorship in the first place. I also notice that they let Aquafina describe how their water is purified! I think they let slip something here about the nature of their water in the fine print...
No knowledgable Catholic would deny that there are hucksters and charlatans out there preying on the gullible. But we are certainly not alone within the Christian camp in that sort of victimization. I’ll leave it to you to figure out the various frauds underway within the various denominations.
I don’t think that the article made the claim that is was an RCC site. Just that one site sells it for that amount. How sad that the woman actually drank it, thinking it would do anything more than any other water of the same purity. Sad.
I didn’t get the impression that she expected the water to do anything. She was just drinking it to keep it from being profaned in the airport trash. After all, unlike the water hawked on the lourdes-water.org site mentioned in the article, this water was *known* by the passenger to be the genuine article, since she procured it on site in Lourdes.
There is no implication from the context that she expected a cure or anything from the water. Indeed, she may have been bringing it home for someone other than herself.
But I would disagree with you about WHY she was bringing the water back. It is obvious there is a reason for purchasing/obtaining "holy" water from one place in regards to other places. Your impression or not does not change the fact that she brought the water back for a special reason. Why that water as compared to any other "holy water"? She expected the water to do something, to be something different than other water. Your argument just does not make sense.
It's .org, not .com
And you are correct. It isn't $135, it's $134.16 for a jug, $20 for the 3 oz airplane size.
http://www.lourdes-water.org/buy/index.php?currency=USD
You know, these folks could give the televangelists a run for their money in ripping off the gullible.
The 3 ounce bottles are available for *only* $20.12
Here’s a link.
http://www.lourdes-water.org/buy/index.php?currency=USD
Through ignorance non-Catholics make their disagreements moot. If it is their intention to convert Catholics they should at least know what Catholics believe before they disparage the faith of others who truly know their own faith. Why would any Catholic consider their words against their church when they make their ignorance obvious.
Actually, I am not trying to convert anyone. That is the role of the Holy Spirit. But, I do know more than you think but I will ask the obvious question - WHAT do YOU believe about "holy water"? In YOUR words.
How do you define blessed on a biblical basis? (Sorry, I forgot to ask this in my other reply.)
Given that the water of Lourdes is a material sign direct from the hand of God (as we Catholics see it, anyway), the woman *should* have shown the respect she had for it. I know you don't look at the provenience of Lourdes water with the same eyes we do, but the sentiment is not too hard to understand. The zeal with which you might guard a picture of *your* mother from being thrown out in the airport trash might be a bit different from how I might go about it, and vice versa. But I can certainly see how you might think it important. You might try to view this situation, if it's even real (and the story is just muddled enough to wonder), from our POV, even if you don't actually agree with it.
*scratching my head in confusion*
Ok, if that is what you say, then why did you say that I was wrong in post 11 when I said the same thing. Strange logic you have.
btw - if the law was that they had to throw away a picture of my mother (living) or my long deceased beloved father, then I would have no problem resting in the sovereignty of God knowing that He alone is my peace and joy, and not a picture or a relic of someone or an inert bottle of something or other. For in Him we live and have our being. In Christ alone.
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