Okay.
Recently the worst eBay auction EVER was conducted.
I’m not going to link to it because I don’t want other folks linking to it.
I don’t want other folks linking to it because it will only popularize the idea and give ideas to others who might be inclined to do the same thing, which would result in further desecrations (which right there ought to tell an educated Catholic what someone sold on eBay).
Incidentally, in case folks are wondering, for a Catholic to procure the subject of an auction of this nature would incur automatic excommunication reserved to the Holy See. This did not apply to the person who conducted the auction in question–apparently–because he is not a Catholic and thus not a subject of canon law, though God will show him the error of his ways in the end.
UPDATE: I should clarify that the excommunication would not apply to one purchasing the auction item for purposes of protecting it from desecration. Canon law restricts the excommunication to those taking or retaining such an item "for a profane purpose." Protecting it from sacrilege is the opposite of a profane purpose.
It seems to me that there is little chance of getting eBay to not list auction items like this because, while they are extremely offensive, they are not illegal, and eBay has a policy allowing offensive things as long as they are not illegal.
That being said, if folks want to contact eBay to demand that they change this policy, great. Good luck. I hope it works.
I do not, however, recommend that folks e-mail all their friends, e-mail their newsgroups, blog about it, post about it on their web sites, etc. I know that’s all happening right now, and it’s understandable. I’ve had multiple people e-mail me the last few days with the story. (Cowboy hat tip to them.) However, in my judgment it is better if folks go quiet on this one.
In fact, that’s the reason I’ve decided to blog the silence recommendation–because I know it’s being furiously e-mailed all around the Catholic corner of the Internet right now.
The more talk about it there is, the more it will get in front of the eyes of juvenile malefactors who would want to do the same thing simply to honk off devout Catholics and get their jollies on a feeling of naughty sacrilege.
(If you want to disagree with me in the combox about the silence recommendation, fine, but kindly refrain from mentioning explicitly what it is we’re talking about.)
