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Show BLESSED BEADS. (From the Ecclesiastical Review.) Question: When beads have .been blessed by the Pope (for no particular person) may they be used by the person who had them blessed, but who intends in-tends to give them away J' Or must the person to whom they are eventually given have them re-blessed re-blessed in order to gain the papal indulgences IJesponse: The general interpretation of the decree of Alevander .VII forbidding the transfer (bv loan) of blessed objects (with the intention of communicating the indulgences), under penalty of forfeiting the indulgences attached to the objects thus loaned, is to prevent on the part of those for whom these objects were in the first instance intended in-tended as gifts the arrogant assumption that they might dispense to others the indulgences by loaning the indulgenced objects at pleasure. Hence the mere use of the beads by a person other than the owner for whom they were blessed, doe3 not strip the beads of indulgences attached to them. Thus they may be loaned to a- sick person who cannot well fix his mind on prayer without the aid of some tangible reminder of the mysteries, such as the series of decades supplies, provided there is no intention of transferring the indulgences indul-gences by such a process. In like manner a person may use the beads unknown to the proprietor without with-out forfeit of the blessing. For like reasons a person per-son who has a papal indulgence1 pair of beads which he wishes to give away may legitimately use the same without prejudice to the nrivilece of the blessing, if he have no intention of gaining the indulgences, in-dulgences, which can only he gained by the person for whom the object blessed was primarily intended. |