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As a non-Catholic (but familiar with some of the traditions), what are the bounds of "blessing"? It's not a high sacrament: blessing meals is ubiquitous, and I've never seen a priest refuse to provide a blessing in lieu of communion to non-members. I know there are limitations on selling blessed objects.
I wouldn't be surprised at priests blessing weapons of war (although most of the examples that come to mind might be orthodox or protestant, there is a Catholic concept of Just War), but I can imagine a refusal to bless, say, objects of a prurient nature. Is this generally up to discretion or is there a general bright line rule I'm not familiar with (or more likely, some combination)?
Almost nothing, race horses get routinely blessed.
I'm at least 30% that the NFL team in New Orleans was named The Saints so that local priests wouldn't raise eyebrows when blessing "The Saints" (the football team).
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Vorpal Dildo +3 is perhaps not on the table?
Never was. Bladed weapons only iirc.
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No holy watersports for me!
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There is a Catholic photo that shows up with some regularity but it's a Priest blessing rifles for hunting. There is the old De Benedictione Armorum from a Roman Pontifical of Benedict XIV and Leo XIII which some folks have grown attached to but it is as much about blessing the person who will wear them and use them for defense of themselves, others and the Church as the weapon itself.
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About 10 years ago, I found a recording on the internet of a Catholic military chaplain blessing the little boy atomic bomb before it went off to destroy Hiroshima. Stupid me forgot to save the reference, and I've been searching for it in vain ever since :(
The Nagasaki recording would have greater ironical value, for the Fat Man destroyed the largest Christian structure in the Asia-Pacific region. The Catholic priest (George Zabelka) who blessed the bomb, later recanted.
There’s even a conspiracy by some ultra right-wing Catholics that the US dropped the bomb on Nagasaki as a deliberate attempt to wipe out the Catholic Church in Japan. Apparently it (and maybe Hiroshima too? I can’t remember and can’t be bothered to look it up) had one of the largest Catholic populations in Japan.
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A blessing is a sacramental, which means it imparts grace on the basis of ‘your-belief-makes-it-real’ not on an inherent ontological change. Yes, there are fancy Latin theology terms for those things, but I’m going with an easy to understand summary. There are blessings for weapons, certainly(I’ve witnessed them), and for animals, items of clothing, those about to enter religious life, etc, etc.
But Catholic doctrine holds that it is impossible to gain in grace while in mortal sin, and also that sodomy and everything leading up to it is a mortal sin that one remains in until confession after breaking up the relationship it took place in. So these blessings would be presumptively invalid.
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