STOCKBRIDGE -- The National Shrine of The Divine Mercy has obtained a small cloth soaked in Pope John Paul II's blood -- the only church in the United States to have such a relic and one of three globally, including the Vatican.

Fr. Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC, the Marians' provincial superior, made the announcement after Sunday Mass, on the eve of the first anniversary of John Paul's beatification in Rome on May 1, 2011. The cloth is about a half-inch square.