Being a Catholic is weird to non-Catholics.

It's even weird to Catholics.

We live in a Protestant world, and sometimes taking Christian doctrine seriously involves a disorienting shift in perspective.

For example, we believe in the resurrection, but do we really?

I'm totally schizophrenic about relics, like this guy:

//I’d brought my pilgrims to this shrine. I’m the one who put it on the schedule. It was all my doing. But I’m not sure I expected this. As I walked in the long line, waiting to come and venerate his relics I had quite the conversation with myself. I knew that the veneration of relics was an ancient practice. But this just seemed weird – I was going to get to the front and then kneel in front of a body to pray.

The Catholic Church
But this wasn’t just a body. This body belongs to a saint. He is part of the universal Church. Yes, his congregation is gathered around the throne of God and not in a parish, but he is still part of the one Church. He, together with all the saints, prays for those of us who are still sojourning on this earth.

I didn’t have an emotional experience before his body, but I came to a new understanding of the Communion of the Saints and the Resurrection of the Body. At the end of time, St. John Neumann’s body will be resurrected. He won’t get a new body. He’ll get this body made new. The same goes for me and you and our bodies. His body is no less his even though his spirit does not currently inhabit it. His body is no mere shell, it is an integral part of him, and will be returned to him.//

The Incorruptibles - Buddhist Division.

This scores high on the "eww, yuck" index - Sokushinbutsu: the Buddhist art of self-mummification.

Hundreds of years ago in northern Japan, a sect of Buddhism practiced a now-illegal form of burial. Existing only in fairy tales until its recent discovery, Sokushinbutsu was a slow, painful death that monks practiced on themselves, resulting in a near-perfect preservation of their bodies.


The process was long and arduous; taking almost 6 years to complete. For the first 1,000 days, the monk would change his diet to consist of nothing but nuts and seeds while exercising daily to eliminate as much body fat as possible. After 666 days, he would move on to an even more restricting diet; eating nothing but roots and tree bark. Finally, as the 1,000 days came to a close a special tea made of toxic sap was drunk; slowly poisoning the body and making it inedible to maggots.


The final step consisted of locking oneself in a small tomb in the lotus position with nothing but an air tube and a bell. After the bell stopped ringing on a regular basis, the monk was presumed dead and the tomb was sealed. 1,000 days later, the monks would uncover the tomb to assess the success of the mummification.


Fully-preserved monks were venerated as a Buddha, given a permanent viewing platform within the temple. The majority who decomposed as normal were still praised for their dedication. With only a handful of preserved bodies left, we can only guess how many monks attempted this.

Looking pretty good for being dead for 130 years.

The "creep factor" on this is pretty high.  So, if you can't handle exorcism flicks like "The Rite," you might want to give this hand-shot video of St. Bernadette's incorruptible body a miss.