Sts. Peter and Paul Church welcome remains of St. John Bosco

Searchlights heralded the arrival of John Bosco [aka Don Bosco] over the week-end to the Church of SS Peter and Paul in San Francisco. The light beams could be seen all over the city and from the Oakland Bay Bridge, but Bosco couldn't see them. Bosco has been dead since 1888. A life sized effigy of the saint in a death posture containing some bones and ashes from one of his hands was scheduled to arrive at 11:30 pm, but didn't make it until 2 am, Sunday, September 12th. He was being brought up from Mexico to continue his tour of North America and was held up at the border for four hours. 

The church was filled with children from the adjoining boys and girls club who were up way past their bed time so the adults could show them how to venerate and pray before what most children would see as a spooky stiff. Instead, they participated in reciting the rosary and listening to an older priest encourage them to always keep their focus on Mary.

Most non-Catholic Christians are baffled by this sort of pageantry over the remains of a body that are exhumed for the purpose of reverence since it doesn't seem reverent to uproot a corpse in such a manner. To most, it seems like necromancy. But this is a long held tradition of the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that canonized holy people from the past can be prayed to for certain favors. Bosco, for instance, is the patron saint of magicians. Prayers to him are thought to be effective for magic shows to come off well.

The patron saint of earthquakes is St. Emydius -- good to know for Bay Area Catholics. If you're looking for a spouse, then St. Joseph is the one to petition. The popular website, Catholic Online,  has a Saints Index so you can find the right saint to direct your prayers. There is absolutely no biblical precedent for such a thing as praying to the dead, especially for Bible-believing Christians who believe what the Bible teaches that there is only one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. Going to Mary, Joseph, Emydius, or Bosco is a total misdirection of prayer and if prayers to them get answered it's either a coincidence or an intervention of a less than benevolent entity.

The Don Bosco web page has a video showing the motions Catholics go through to show veneration for the bones of the saint. In one of the tapes, priests ceremonially remove packages from the hollow chest of the effigy that contain the bones, and then the others line up to kiss the linen wrappings. In another tape, a dramatic parade can be seen of the effigy being rolled down the middle of a street leading to a church with scores of people on either side waving greetings and a priest wearing gold vestments splashes holy water on it.

This is a second tour of revered body parts to make a visit to the Bay Area this summer. [See Examiner article, East Bay tour of a relic is a strange attraction.] In July, the heart of St. John Vianney went on display at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland before moving along on its world tour. People lined up to place their offering in the basket in front of the glass case containing the dead man's heart that resembled a piece of old beef jerky. Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests.

A recent article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel by Shanna McCord cited the Rev. Roy Shelly of the Monterey Diocese as saying that "Bosco's relics provide a wonderful opportunity for Catholics and others to renew and strengthen their faith by paying tribute to the saint." He told the reporter that venerating the relics "has been a powerful means of opening oneself to the grace of the Holy Spirit."

It would be easier to believe that participating in something as macabre as praying in front of dead men's bones could open oneself up to an evil spirit. It would be an act of God's grace to protect well-meaning idol worshippers from opening themselves up to the demonic underworld. Perhaps the address of the church, 6-6-6 Filbert Street might have been a dead giveaway.

Pope Benedict XVI is headed for Great Britain this weekend for the beatification of one of England's own, 19th Century theologian Cardinal John Henry Newman. Perhaps the papal entourage will visit Newman's grave to confiscate relics to be used as objects of prayer in order to document supposed miracles received by the petitioners, a prerequisite to the final stage of canonization. The letters on the tomb R.I.P. will not prevent his remains from the ecclesiastical grave robbers.