Papal Trip to Commemorate St. Paul's Shipwreck

Zenit News Agency ^ | 2/11/10

[marshmallow]

Vatican Confirms Details of April Journey to Malta

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 11, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican press office confirmed Wednesday the itinerary for Benedict XVI's April 17-18 trip to Malta.

The visit will celebrate the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul's shipwreck on the island that, according to tradition, occurred in the year 60 A.D., during the Apostle's second voyage toward Rome.

The Holy Father will meet with the president of the nation, as well as Maltese youth and clergy.

He will leave Rome on Saturday afternoon, arriving in Malta at 5 p.m., and giving an address at the airport. He will then go to the capital, meeting with President George Abela, in the Palace of the Grand Master in La Valletta.

After the meeting, the Holy Father will visit and pray at St. Paul's Grotto in Rabat, giving another address.

The following day, the Pontiff will celebrate a 10 a.m. Sunday Mass in Granero Square in the city of Floriana, followed by the midday Regina Caeli.

The Pope will have lunch with bishops of Malta in the nunciature of Rabat.

In the afternoon, he will travel by sea to the Great Port of La Valletta, where he will meet with young Maltese, and deliver an address. His final discourse will be delivered at a farewell ceremony at the airport, and he is expected back in Rome before 9 p.m..

This will be the Pope's 14th international apostolic trip and the third time for the Mediterranean archipelago to be visited by a Pontiff, after Pope John Paul II's visits in 1990 and 2001.

Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964. It has more than 410,000 inhabitants, 98% of whom are Catholic. It has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004.

[gusopol3]

according to tradition

Who cares about tradition, this is according to scripture ( except the date, I guess).

[Pope Pius XII]

I do care about tradition.

[gusopol3]

Scripture trumps tradition.

[Pope Pius XII]

Tradition and scripture in my view are equal.

[jagusafr]

Yikes!

[trisham]

It sounds like a lovely trip.

[gusopol3]

There's an interesting book The Lost shipwreck of Paul that details the search for the actual beach whereon the ship of Alexandria crashed. I can't remember the exact detail of where the local tradition places the wreck, but his search for the anchors was guided (unfortunately, he didn't find them) by the landmark described in Acts 24:41, that the ship had run aground "where two seas met" a place he did find, and far removed from the traditional site.

[afraidfortherepublic]

About 40 years ago we had a priest lent to our parish in Oakland, CA from the nation of Malta. As he explained to me, there were (at that time) too many priests in Malta so many of them went to other nations to serve. They returned to Malta as openings arose.

I can’t remember his name, but he was a kind and gentle man and he played the violin beautifully. This was just at the time that the Vatican II changes were being implemented and the Mass was first said in English. He wrote a beautiful Gloria and gave it to our Parish (St. Leo’s) to sing, copyright free.

[Verginius Rufus]

According to Acts, they were sailing in the Adriatic before the shipwreck (27.27) and there were snakes on the island (28.3-5). St. Luke calls the island "Melite." There were two islands called by that name in ancient times, Malta and the island now called Mljet near Dubrovnik. Mljet is in the Adriatic and has snakes. Malta has no snakes and is not in the Adriatic.

St. Luke refers to the natives of the island as "barbarians" (barbaroi). If the island was Malta, they may have been speaking the Punic language, which was similar to Hebrew--would people St. Paul could have conversed with been called "barbarians"?

I don't think this counts as an infallible pronouncement that the Melite of St. Paul's shipwreck was Malta.