ASK FATHER: Pre-owned engagement or wedding ring. Exorcism?

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Thanks for everything you do, your blog has been tremendously helpful over the years. My girlfriend and I are getting engaged soon and when we went ring shopping, our favorite one was previously owned. I want to make sure this kind of ring is safe to buy if I don’t know its history… is it likely that there are any harmful spiritual/demonic attachments, and if so, are there blessings and/or exorcisms that a parish priest could say in order to get rid of any harmful spiritual baggage? Or would it be better to choose a different ring? (This ring was far and away the most beautiful one we found, so we really don’t want to choose a different one). Thanks so much, God bless!

I am glad that you are aware of the possibility of bad influences from objects whose provenance is uncertain.

It seems to me that, once purchased, all you have to do is take the ring to a priest and ask him to bless it, preferably with the older, traditional Rituale Romanum and with Holy Water blessed with the traditional rite.

As a matter of fact… now that my memory storage disc is finally spinning up… there are both a traditional blessing for a wedding ring and a traditional Rite of Betrothal.  It should be in the Rituale Romanum. I know it is in “Weller”.   Also, Angelus Press has an handy printing/booklet for the betrothal rite.

In any event, get the ring blessed.  No problem.

However, if it starts to spin around and you hear howling, drop your Harry Potter book and send me another email.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. Sportsfan says:

    First thing would be to put it in fire to see if any Elvish writing appears.

  2. surritter says:

    If I recall, a blessed object loses that blessing once it is sold for $.
    But apparently, a cursed object can retain its curse even if sold for $.

  3. Sportsfan says:

    I thought an item that was blessed could not be sold for more than the same item without a blessing. That would be selling blessings.

    If that’s the case then what surritter recalled wouldn’t make sense.

  4. APX says:

    I was browsing engagement rings online and noticed a new market that jewelry stores have created since the pandemic started- pre-owned rings. I suspect they were bought and for whatever reason we’re no longer needed, but couldn’t be returned for a full refund.

    I understand the writer’s pain in looking for a beautiful engagement ring. The stuff that’s out there now are just not that attractive, or will not age well like more traditional settings such as solitary and the three stone past, present, future setting that’s been around since at least the 70s.

  5. Boniface says:

    The Church teaches that (as stated in the Enchiridion of Indulgences) that the blessing upon an object ceases once the object is either destroyed or sold.

    Sportsfan, that would mean that blessed objects can be sold at any price, but once sold, the blessing disappears, so there is no incentive to “sell a blessing,” since it wouldn’t work to attempt to do so.

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