Cellular Saints

Well, I just finished a parish mission at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ. I stayed with the family of one of my godsons and had a great time catching up with them in between mission sessions, a presentation to the Mother's Guild, Masses, Confessions, and a staff retreat. Waiting in my in box this morning was a link to a little story from Italy that seems to be a tempest in a teapot to me.

A company in Italy started offering the service on Tuesday but ran into opposition from some Catholic Church leaders who think the idea is crass and commercial.

"We found a need and filled it," Barbara Labate, who came up with the idea with her business partner in a cell phone services company based in Milan, told Reuters by telephone.

Many taxis, private cars, and trucks in Italy have a small picture of a saint--known as a "santino" or little saint--taped to the dashboard. Millions of Italians also keep wrinkled and worn "santini" in their wallets or handbags.

"We are merely catching up with the times. I think this will appeal to young people as well as grandmothers," Labate said.

The company started the service with 15 saints on offer and Labate said the hallowed catalogue will grow. The downloading service, done by sending a text message to a phone number, costs three euros ($4.42). The Web site is santiprotettori.com

Nearly every shop near the Vatican sells paper "santini" but not everyone in the Church thinks cell phones and saints are a marriage made in heaven.

"This is in really bad taste," Bishop Lucio Soravito De Franceschi, a member of the Italian bishops conference committee for doctrinal matters, told the Turin newspaper La Stampa.

"It is a distortion of sacred things...selling 'santini' for cell phones is horrifying," he said.

But Labate, who is Sicilian and recalls how her mother gave her a "santino" to put in her luggage when she traveled, rejected the criticism.

"We are simply offering a service to the faithful. We are doing this with the maximum respect, dignity, and professionalism for believers," she said.

I dunno, it seems like a simple technological update on an old tradition. What's so bad about having a saint's image on one's cell phone? Maybe Gabriel the Archangel, patron saint of communications, or St. Bernardine of Siena would be good saints for a cell phone. Bernardine was sensitive to the demands of secular life, and tried to negotiate between Christian ethics and a conflicting code of honor that stressed retaining face in a public world. He argued that the catalyst of civil discord in the urban setting was malicious gossip, which led to insults, and, too often, vendetta by aggressive males. His surprising allies in his peacekeeping mission were the women who comprised the majority of his audience.

Perhaps Bishop De Franceschi might take a cue from St. Bernardine and be a bit more sensitive to the demands of current secular life.

I'm wondering if I can't get an image of St. Catherine of Siena, download it to my laptop, then transfer it to my cellphone and use it as my background image. I'll let you know if it works. And it won't cost me three euros.


hat tip: Sue Gifford