Holy Water Is Contaminated With What?!

"When getting blessed, you might also be getting sick. Researchers say holy water could actually be harmful to your health, as some of it contains fecal matter. "Austrian scientists tested water from more than three dozen holy springs and church fonts and found that none, not one of them were safe to drink." (Via WPVI) Researchers say 86 percent of the samples from 39 different springs and church bowls they tested contained bacteria from fecal matter like e-coli which can lead to diarrhea, cramps, stomach pain, fever and other illnesses if ingested...".* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

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[jamesegan]

The point of holy water, at least in the Catholic Church, has nothing to do with how clean it is. The idea of it is a sacramental sign, since water is such an important Biblical image, and furthermore it is the "matter" with which we are baptized. Holy water is "made" when a priest blesses it, and when we use holy water we use it in faith, as a physical sign of what we believe. It doesn't come from a special spring, it can be any water at all.

[ciara]

I JUST DRANK HOLY WATER OUT OF A LITTLE GLASS BOTTLE BUT WTF IS THIS TRUE???!!

[Treblaine]

I'm just glad it didn't turn out to be semen.

[jesustruth]

Maybe they could 1) disinfect the bowl 2) change water often 3) have priest wash hands 4) sterilize instruments that touch water 5) Put disinfectant in water 6) have a holy water fountain (like the spring Cenk mentions.) Just some ideas. I'm not Catholic so I'm not real familiar with holy water. But when I got baptized it was in a pool so I made sure get in the front of the line!

[Freyelise]

Not sure which worries me more, the fact that our water supply is getting contaminated, or the fact that people actually still believe in a water well being somehow "holy" or "blessed".

[harlkory]

This reminds me of a skit these camp counselors used to put on at the religious camp I used to go to as a kid. One counselor would dress as the priest and three or for others would come in and 'confess their sins' (just little child friendly things like stealing a pencil from a friend or eating the last cookie and lying about it). Then the 'priest' would have them drink the holy water and they would leave. The very last person would come in kinda half crying and apologizing and then said "I'm so sorry but I peed in the holy water!" Looks like people have to actually be worried about waste in their holy water (Yes I know fecal matter isn't urine but it just reminded me of that story.)

[jiberish]

While I have little doubt that "holy water" can be very unclean, saying that "86% of holy water contains fecal matter" is misleading to those not very observant of those words.
For starters, most people would be surprised by how common it is to find traces of fecal matter on just about everything we humans interact with. And then you must consider the words "contains fecal matter", which doesn't actually tell you how much is there, just that 86% of the water has fecal matter in it.

[islandgurhl]

you cant drink the water from the church but if you want water that you can drink you can take a bottle of water from home to the church and ask the priest to bless it so u can drink it. think smart people

[NewMexico]

This gives a whole new meaning to "Holy shit"

[MovieGuy]

People realize it's just regular water, right? The fact that some people believe there is such a thing as water that is holy is ludicrous. Stop living your life according to ancient stories that have no basis in science or reality.

[IamSpacedad]

Wouldn't be the first time something within the church would be 'more likely to be corrupted.'

[BeBooBoopBeepBeep]

Now to clarify, Derren, I'm not overly religious myself. But I have friends who are strong believers so I stick up for ppls opinions. Sometimes TYT are too harsh on the religious. Religion in my view is not science, but I would never trounce on anyone who thinks otherwise.

[tiffanywong]

People commenting, if your going to put down someone elses religion do it somewhere else! No one made fun of your religion and beliefs so it gives you no right to go around swearing about their god!!! Rude

[Cafeeine]

"Holy water" doesn't only apply to that. Orthodox believers do drink holy water.

[austinstewart]

Boy that's a close minded thing to say. Try not putting a whole group under a certain category. There's other people that do things like that. They're called intolerant racists.

[MRWDL]

Telling someone to "stfu" for wanting better fact checking?
Tsk.

[Rotatebilly]

That sounds more like people have a general ignorance about their own religion; the church's official position is that 'they' are literally blessing the water, there's no symbolism involved whatsoever.
It's the same with the Eucharist; most rational, modern Christian simply view its consumption as a symbolic event, what most Christians don't seem to know is that many churches don't view it as symbolic, they believe that as you consume the wine/bread it literally becomes Christ's body/blood.

[MrTheDomm]

To be completely honest, thats not even that bad. Your mobile phone is probably even worse. The lessons learned here, don't put holy water, your phone or anything else you use frequently in your mouth because you are probably eating shit.

[kollegahsterin]

You're not supposed to drink the holy water, just cross-sign your forehead with it. I still don't do it for sanitary reasons.

[billybob]

Whenever I've heard the term "holy" defined in a church, it's been a slightly godlier synonym for pure and segregated. Kept separate in order to retain purity. (eg.) the heart of the temple (holy of holies) was a room that fucking NO ONE went into outside of specific ceremonies (and even then it could supposedly kill you).
If you've got people bathing in it, then by definition it's no longer holy. It's got little to do with geography of the source.