You can find pretty much anything on eBay. We've seen a crumpled piece of paper, a Ziploc bag full of water, even someone's 15 minutes of fame.

But now it's gone too far, says a group fighting to get the remains of Catholic saints off eBay.

The online retailer bans the sale of human body parts. But according to the International Crusade for Holy Relics, the bones and flesh of Catholic saints are readily available on eBay.

"There is no enforcement of their own policy," charges Andrew Walther, a member of the group, which is based in Los Angeles and has about 200 members.

"The most sacred relics to the Catholic faith — and to the Orthodox faith and many Christian denominations, really — are the bones, the relics of the saints. These are people who we venerate with great respect," he says.

Saints' relics have been revered for centuries. They are often stored in elaborate containers after they have been authenticated by church authorities. Church law says they shouldn't be bought and sold.

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PRIORITIES

Officials at eBay say it is doing its best, pointing out that it bans everything from weapons and drugs to counterfeit items, plus anything racist or offensive such as Nazi paraphernalia (though Nazi-era stamps and coins are OK), as well as human remains.

"We're actually incredibly effective in enforcing our policies, but we do prioritize," says eBay spokeswoman Catherine England.

"Firearms, regulated narcotics — those are items that you're simply not going to find on our site," she says.

England says more than 105 million items are on eBay, with 6 million new items added every day.

They are checked by computer programs that scan for banned items, and by a 2,000-member "trust and security" team. Feedback from eBay users also helps.

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LIMITS

Ultimately, though, there are limits.

"We never actually have the item to inspect it," England says. "The item goes directly from the seller to the buyer. Payment goes directly from the buyer to the seller. ... At the end of the day, individuals are still responsible for their activity on our site."

As for holy relics specifically, eBay's ban on human remains covers most of the relics in question. But the site does allow locks of human hair, despite complaints from the ICHR when the hair purportedly comes from a saint.

"I think what happens in a lot of these cases is, you may have items that a particular group isn't interested in seeing on our site. But, the reality is that in many cases it might be a perfectly legal item to buy and sell," England says.

"We're in a position where we need to balance what's in the best interests of our marketplace along with what do they legally have the right to buy and sell in any other venue."

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'EX CARNE'

To be fair, it takes some investigating to find the bones and flesh of saints on eBay.

Walther directed asap to one listing for a holy relic that says in the text portion "contains no human remains" but then in a close-up of the relic the words "ex carne" can be seen. The phrase is Latin for "from the flesh."

ICHR founder Tom Serafin is calling for a boycott of eBay until it stops the sale of holy relics.

"You just wonder at one point do you take responsibility for creating this worldwide marketplace," he says.

"If you want to be the biggest company in the world, then take responsibility for what you sell."

Stephanie Hoo is asap's business writer.

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