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A reliquary containing the blood of pope John Paul II CTK Photo/Jaroslav Ozana
Lost and Found
Vial thieves 'threw away' John Paul II's blood
Reports say the thieves did not understand the value of the relic.
7.50pm, 30 Jan 2014
17.5k
59
THIEVES ACCUSED OF stealing a religious relic stained with Polish pope John Paul II’s blood threw it away thinking it worthless, Italian media said today, reporting the police had detained three people.
The three “did not understand the relic’s value” and “cannot remember where they threw away the precious loot”, the ANSA news agency said, citing the police.
Police recovered the object’s metal frame but could not find the cloth, believed to be part of the robe the pontiff was wearing when he was shot in an assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square in 1981.
It was stolen on Saturday along with a cross, which has also been found, from the San Pietro della Ienca church in the mountainous Abruzzo region in central Italy where the late pope loved to go on skiing holidays.
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The PrimaDaNoi.it Abruzzo news website said two of those arrested are 23 and 24 years old and are drug addicts known to the police for other petty crimes.
The relic is a framed, tiny square of cloth.
The relic was given to the small church in 2011 by Stanislaw Dziwisz, a cardinal who served as John Paul II’s personal secretary until his death in 2005.
Local media said some 50 police officers and sniffer dogs were deployed in the search for the missing relic in an area famed for its weathered stone houses and the little church where the head of the Roman Catholic Church once reportedly took refuge in a storm.
John Paul II and the Italian pope John XXIII, known as “Good Pope John”, are set to become saints in a ceremony at the Vatican in April – an event which will substantially increase the value of the stolen relic.
@Brian D’Arcy: these people think democrats and even our own government are left wing ! It could be said that some policies are left wing but that’s it. You can’t argue with them.
@offside again: There is no “left wing”. There is no “right wing”. It is an illusion. A means to divide and conquer. There are just people, with different opinions on a wide variety of topics. If you want to use terms that are more accurate, you could say “nationalists and globalists” or “collectivists and individualists” but even these do not capture the full spectrum of any one person’s beliefs.
@Alan: the banks were bailed out almost 2 decades ago, and that is not a right wing policy. Government interference in money is left wing not right wing. You’re confused god bless you.
@offside again: what constitutes left and right fluctuates over time . In the 19th century nationalism was considered left wing – a minority fighting for rights in a Kingdom or Empire . Right wing types wanted loyalty to the multi – state King and the status quo preserved . Right / left is just a general guide used in a particular time and is not caste in stone . By today’s more or less agreed standards , some of our government’s policies are left wing – on immigration or its embrace of gender mumbo jumbo .
@offside again: like falling put of a passing plane a day before birth ? Or if here on holidays ? Nah, that would not make you Irish as parents would have to be from here ,in your blood and ancestors so how ?
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