ROME: Italian police have confiscated 3,500 fake “papal benedictions” worth 70,000 euros ($77,000) in a blitz on counterfeit goods that saw one million objects seized in a week, the interior ministry said on Monday.

Pilgrims flocking to Rome for the Vatican’s Jubilee year can purchase parchments with a benediction by Pope Francis, with profits going to the Vatican’s department for charitable works.

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