“Holy Horrors” and “Pious Junk”

● Selling religious ware to the devout and pious has become an exceedingly profitable business. There are St. Christopher money clips, St. Anthony key chains, “rosary clickers,” beads that contain water from a so-called miraculous fountain and even glowing-in-the-dark crucifixes. A few Catholic authorities have had the courage to come out and admit that selling religious gadgets is a “good racket.” Recently the Archbishop Richard J. Cushing, in a radio address, strongly warned against purchasing “holy horrors.” He went on to list as “pious junk” and “pious rubbish” such articles as “crosses that glow in the dark, religious pictures with eyes that follow you around the room, water from a holy hydrant, vials of miracle anointing oils.” The archbishop added: “It’s an insult to your intelligence; it’s money spent for holy horrors. These things belittle Catholic devotion and encourage superstition.”—New Bedford, Massachusetts, Standard-Times, March 23, 1954.