Relic of Saint John Paul II stolen from historic basilica

Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento, Buenos Aires, Argentina Blessed Sacrament Basilica in Buenos Aires, Argentina. | Flickr/Luis Alveart (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
ACI Prensa

By ACI Prensa

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov 22, 2021 / 13:07 pm

The rector of the Polish Catholic Mission in Argentina, Father Jorge Jacek Twarog, reported Sunday that the relic of Saint John Paul II, which was kept in Blessed Sacrament Basilica in Buenos Aires, was stolen.

The relic, which came to Argentina from Poland in 2016, consists of a drop of the blood of Saint John Paul II held in a small square shaped case with a golden frame and mounted on a metal representation of the pope’s papal coat of arms.

It was personally given to Twarog on August 19, 2016 by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow, at the Archbishop's Palace in the former capital of Poland.

The basilica’s pastor, Father Rafael Cáceres Olave and the Catholic community are taking all measures to find the relic and praying that it is retrieved soon.

ACI Prensa
ACI Prensa is the Catholic News Agency's sister agency, which was founded in Lima, Peru, in 1980 by Fr. Adalbert Marie Mohm (†1986). In 1997, ACI Prensa launched the website www.aciprensa.com, which is the largest and most visited online source of Catholic news in Spanish. In 2014, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) acquired Catholic News Agency and ACI Prensa. Since the merger, CNA and ACI Prensa have expanded their distribution platform. Now it is a service of EWTN News Inc.

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