Inventor Luciano Marabese displays a prototype of his holy water dispenser.
ROME (Reuters) – An Italian inventor has combined faith and ingenuity to come up with a way to keep church traditions alive for the faithful without the fear of contracting swine flu — an electronic holy water dispenser.
The terracotta dispenser, used in the northern town of Fornaci di Briosco, functions like an automatic soap dispenser in public washrooms — a churchgoer waves his or her hand under a sensor and the machine spurts out holy water.
Catholics entering and leaving churches usually dip their hands into fonts full of holy water — which has been blessed by a priest — and make the sign of the cross.But fear of contracting the H1N1 virus has led many in Italy — where some 15 people have died of swine flu — not to dip their hands in the communal water font.
“It’s great,” said worshipper Marta Caimm as she entered the church. “Thanks to this we are not worried about catching swine flu. It is the right thing for the times,” she said.
Why would God allow a flu virus get into blessed holy water? And what is the point of something being “holy” if it can still be polluted with a dangerous disease? The virus will have been blessed by a priest, giving you the privilege to die from a holy virus. So you would have that going for you … which is nice.
By the way, someone really should have suggested that the designer make the dispenser look a little less like a urinal. Seriously.
November 14, 2009 at 11:31 pm |
Hmm…interesting entry. But really, why stop at asking questions at this point?
Why not go further? At risk of alienating all the Catholics out there, what, exactly, is holy water? Water blessed by a priest, sure, but why? What part does it play in the Catholic life, let alone the germ factor? Does the “blessing” of the priest actually change the substance of the water? (I’m not asking about the eucharist/communion host here, different subject there.) Or is any spiritual value completely separate from the physical reality?
November 14, 2009 at 11:51 pm |
Hum I have never really thought about this but I would like hearing what some of the answers are to these questions.
I think asking why would they need such a dispenser to protect themselves isn’t the kind of question we need to be asking. I think we need to ask something more on the line of why isn’t the church sending this types of devices to all the many places without good water.
November 15, 2009 at 4:37 am |
By the way, someone really should have suggested that the designer make the dispenser look a little less like a urinal.
Considering its actual function, that resemblance could lead to some entertaining, if disgusting, mistakes.
November 15, 2009 at 4:39 am |
I’m not asking about the eucharist/communion host here, different subject there.
And one which has some interesting implications of its own.
November 15, 2009 at 12:19 pm |
One picky point: the virus, if present, probably will not have been blessed by the priest. The water no doubt will have been clean initially, when the blessing took place (before it has even been put into the font), and is part of the general supply of holy water that they use in the ceremonies. If a virus were transmitted, it would have moved off one parishioner’s hand when dipped in the font and then later on to another parishioner.
This is a little like the instruction on the mayonnaise label: Refrigerate after opening. Once the customer has stuck his or her grubby fingers in it, the manufacturer is not going to vouch for its continued purity.
November 15, 2009 at 11:28 pm |
Well, the other half is how could something that is supposedly holy be so easily corrupted in the first place?
It’s not like there’s any misuse going on. This water is literally becoming something toxic simply by virtue of someone using it in the manner for which it was ordained. There’s nothing sinister at work here, just plain old biology.
Therefore, if this is supernatural in substance, shouldn’t it have some sort of imperviousness to common ailments?
November 16, 2009 at 10:48 am |
Holy water is supposed to wash away sin and protect from evil.
So first one needs to determine whether, theologically, disease is evil (harm actively intended by malevolent beings) or just an ordinary hazard of living. Was holy water ever intended to be effective against “plain old biology”?
Then there is the question of how “imperviousness to common ailments” would work. Would holy water actively repel pathogens, forcing them to stay on the original victim or propelling them through the air to a nearby wall or floor or some other out-of-harm’s-way surface (taking care, of course, that they not be inhaled by anyone); and what would be a safe place, anyway? Or would it cover pathogens in some kind of protective seal and sequester them at the bottom of the font for later removal during routine cleaning? Or would it actively kill biological pathogens (bacteria, viruses, prions, parasite eggs, etc.) and actively disassemble non-living pathogens (poisons)?
In the latter case, holy water would have some powerful magic since it would be, effectively, a perfect universal antiseptic.
It is not clear what believers think holy water protects them from, but their behavior suggests that they do not expect it to protect against the routine physical threats of the real world. Being “supernatural in substance”, apparently it operates only against supernatural dangers.
Render unto God that which is God’s and render unto Pasteur and Lister that which belongs to Medicine.
November 17, 2009 at 7:53 am |
Seems pretty pointless, as people either have been or will be sitting shoulder to shoulder with others for an hour. And dang, it’s ugly!
What I recall from my days attending church with relatives is that people only think holy water protects them from spiritual ills, but mostly they don’t think about it at all. It’s almost like a low-level communion. Same goes for lighting votive candles in front of a cross or image. It’s a purely symbolic “sacrifice,” and nobody I ever knew thought there was any kind of mojo in the image, or that any spiritual being appreciated the candles. It’s just sort of fun and gets people in that mystical mood. Just one more thing religious people do on auto-pilot.
November 17, 2009 at 8:59 am |
Holy tinkle Batman.
November 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm |
This is kind of like those single-serving sacraments idea — I wish I’d have thought of that!
January 9, 2010 at 8:01 pm |
any updates coming??