{"id":2132,"date":"2007-12-04T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-04T10:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/when-heaven-calls.html"},"modified":"2007-12-04T10:56:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-04T10:56:00","slug":"when-heaven-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/when-heaven-calls.html","title":{"rendered":"When heaven calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> If — like countless Catholics — you have your sock drawer stuffed with torn and crumpled Holy Cards, have no fear. Modern technology is creating a new kind of card<\/a>, for a new kind of Catholic. You can now get the images sent to your cellphone: <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“We found a need and filled it,” Barbara Labate, who came up with the idea with her business partner in a cellphone services company based in Milan, told Reuters by telephone.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“We are merely catching up with the times. I think this will appeal to young people as well as grandmothers,” Labate said.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Nearly every shop near the Vatican sells paper “santini” but not everyone in the Church thinks cellphones and saints are a marriage made in heaven.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“It is a distortion of sacred things … selling ‘santini’ for cell phones is horrifying,” he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“We are simply offering a service to the faithful. We are doing this with the maximum respect, dignity and professionalism for believers,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Image: some of the pictures available for cellphones, by Reuters<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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