Catholic students protest eBay commercial policy
Katie Scharber/Assistant News Editor
Issue date: 4/27/05 Section: News
UD students collected more than 300 signatures last week for a petition requesting eBay.com to add the Eucharist to its list of prohibited sale items.
Junior Theresa Scott, who began the petition drive, said she was outraged at the sale of a consecrated host from a 1998 papal Mass.
The listing on eBay included a host, a program from the Mass, and a lighter bearing John Paul II's face.
The man who listed the items was offered $2,000 by a Catholic wishing to dispose of the host according to Church protocol. Before the sale took place, however, the man's local diocese intervened; and he agreed to turn the host over to the diocese. EBay terminated the auction listing, but refuses to change the policy on prohibited items to include the Eucharist.
"EBay is a major corporation who doesn't deal with just a small group of people; they're dealing with people all over the United States and all over the world, and they...have indicated they are aware they have a responsibility to respect other people's privacy and other people's beliefs," Scott said.
The eBay Community Watch responded to complaints about the listing, saying, "EBay has made the decision not to prohibit any item on the basis of the item's being endowed with sacred properties by certain religious groups."
Among the sacred items allowed for auction on eBay are Catholic relics of saints, LDS garments, and Buddhist tablets. But Catholics object that the Eucharist is not just a religious artifact.
"This is a call to witness in the year of the Eucharist to that reverence we feel as Catholics [for the Eucharist]," Scott said.
Scott will send the collected signatures to eBay president.
Junior Theresa Scott, who began the petition drive, said she was outraged at the sale of a consecrated host from a 1998 papal Mass.
The listing on eBay included a host, a program from the Mass, and a lighter bearing John Paul II's face.
The man who listed the items was offered $2,000 by a Catholic wishing to dispose of the host according to Church protocol. Before the sale took place, however, the man's local diocese intervened; and he agreed to turn the host over to the diocese. EBay terminated the auction listing, but refuses to change the policy on prohibited items to include the Eucharist.
"EBay is a major corporation who doesn't deal with just a small group of people; they're dealing with people all over the United States and all over the world, and they...have indicated they are aware they have a responsibility to respect other people's privacy and other people's beliefs," Scott said.
The eBay Community Watch responded to complaints about the listing, saying, "EBay has made the decision not to prohibit any item on the basis of the item's being endowed with sacred properties by certain religious groups."
Among the sacred items allowed for auction on eBay are Catholic relics of saints, LDS garments, and Buddhist tablets. But Catholics object that the Eucharist is not just a religious artifact.
"This is a call to witness in the year of the Eucharist to that reverence we feel as Catholics [for the Eucharist]," Scott said.
Scott will send the collected signatures to eBay president.