Part III: Chalice or third-class relic?

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications 
(Part 3 of a series) 
 
There’s more to Father Brad Pelzel’s personal chalice than what meets the eye. The vessel is now a third-class relic, an object touched by a saint.
 
The gold-plated chalice was used by St. John Paul II for the pope’s private daily Mass on June 13, 2002. At the time, Father Pelzel was completing four years of seminary study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome and would remain in Rome another year to complete his graduate studies (licentiate) in sacred theology.

 Read Part I - Father Andrew Galles and intro

He learned that there was a monsignor working in the papal household that could facilitate the pope using a priest’s chalice at a private Mass. However, Father Pelzel would not be present at the Holy Father’s Mass where his chalice would be used.
 
“If you contacted him and had your chalice delivered to him, he would set it out for the Holy Father to use for his daily Mass. And then he would document it and you’d get it back,” Father Pelzel said. “I just dropped it off with the Swiss Guard with the note. Then I got a call a few weeks later, saying, come pick it up. There was nothing ceremonial about it.”

Father Brad Pelzel, V.G. He received a card with the Vatican seal dated June 13, 2002, that reads, “The Holy Father John Paul II celebrated the holy Mass in his private chapel while using this chalice belonging to Rev. Fr. Bradley C. Pelzel. – Fr. Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, Secretary to the Holy Father.”
 
A receipt releasing the vessel back to Father Pelzel on June 14, 2002, was kept with the card to document the chalice’s return to the priest.
 
He would not realize for many years that a future saint used his chalice in the sacrifice of the Mass. Pope John Paul II was canonized April 27, 2014.
 
St. Anthony’s intercession
 
As a special gift to the newly-ordained priest, a friend offered to have the information regarding Pope John Paul II’s use of the chalice engraved on the bottom. When the engraving was completed and the chalice returned, the documentation from the Vatican was missing.

Read Part II - Fr. Bill McCarthy 

“And so, there were many prayers to St. Anthony,” Father Pelzel said, hoping somehow the documentation would be returned to him.
 
A few years later, the engraver died and his daughter found the documents in her father’s papers and contacted Father Pelzel.
 
“She called me and said her dad had passed away. ‘It seems to me it’s something you would want,’ (she said),” Father Pelzel recalled the conversation when he learned the documents would be returned. “St. Anthony, thank you so much. Now I’ve got all the paperwork back.”

Engraving from 2002 and when the chalice was new. Chalice history
Priests often receive a chalice around the time of their ordination. They can be a gift from family or parents or be passed down from an older priest or a deceased priest to keep the vessel in liturgical use.
 
As Father Pelzel approached his priestly ordination, former director of vocations Father Brian Hughes informed Father Pelzel that there were some chalices in storage from former priests if he would want to select one.
 
“I could have one under the condition that whenever I die, it goes back to the diocese,” Father Pelzel said. “I thought this was the most beautiful of all of them.”
 
It is not certain which priest originally received the chalice, but there is engraving on the bottom noting that the Adamowicz family donated the vessel. Father Pelzel had the chalice replated and purchased a paten to go with it.
 
“I would use it for all the special occasions,” Father Pelzel said of his chalice. “My mom died the first of September and I would go up and do a Mass at her grave (on the anniversary of her death) and this was the chalice that I would take with me. Now dad is there and it’s still the chalice I take with me.”

 The chalice is also used when he celebrates Mass on his ordination anniversary – Aug. 10, 2002.