Dealing with the use of relics in the Catholic tradition, particularly in the context of the Therese visit, Carmelite priest Father Christopher O'Donnell, who lectures at the Milltown Institute in Dublin, is at pains to emphasise that "relics have no virtue in themselves . . ." He warns against "the danger of superstition or magic" where they are involved.
The use of relics goes back almost to the time of the apostles, he points out, and, in defence of the Catholic position, he quotes both Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas who said it was natural that people should treasure what is associated with the dead, like the ring or garment of a parent.
Aquinas posited the following reasons for the use of relics: saints are members of Christ; they are children and friends of God; and are our intercessors. People want to be close to them through their relics.
"Relics are one way in which God helps us in our bodily humanity to rise to spiritual realities, " says Father O'Donnell. "Religion can never be purely intellectual; it must touch us at different levels or our being," he says, but emphasises "the correct veneration of relics looks beyond what is visible and material to God's love at work in the saint, to the inspiration of the saint's life, and to God's pleasure in confirming the virtue of the saint by signs and cures.
"Buddhism, the only other major religion apart from Catholic Christianity to have a major place for relics, insists too that we must go beyond the relic. One of its traditions is the Buddha himself told his followers not to concentrate on his bodily remains but on his teaching," he says.