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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

May I own a rosary for artistic display?

Question:

I think rosaries are beautiful and would like to own one, although I would not use it to pray. I have been told that it would be "wrong" for me to have a rosary, since I see them only as beautiful art. Can I own a rosary if I intend only to display it as art?

Answer:

There is nothing wrong with buying a rosary because you consider it a beautiful art form. Many people collect examples of artifacts of religions of which they are not members. So long as the artifact is treated with dignity, reasonable religious people should be flattered rather than offended that you consider their religious emblems lovely enough to wish to display in your home.

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