Posted on 07/04/2019 10:52:06 AM PDT by ebb tide
ROME, July 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In an unexpected and what some in Rome are viewing as an ominous gesture, Pope Francis has given away relics of St. Peter the Apostle to an Orthodox patriarch.
Following a solemn Mass on June 29, the liturgical feast of the Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul, the Pope gave a delegation representing Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople a bronze reliquary containing nine bone fragments of the first Pope.
The Orthodox Church, while having a valid priesthood and sacraments, is not in full communion with Rome, in part because it does not accept papal primacy. Although a mutual withdrawal of excommunication between Rome and Constantinople was issued at the end of the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, Catholics do not pray for the Orthodox patriarchs in their liturgy nor do the Orthodox pray for the Pope. There is no sacramental intercommunion between the Churches.
The nine bone fragments were among the relics of St. Peter discovered during excavations of the Vatican necropolis begun by Pope Pius XI in 1939. During the excavations, archaeologists discovered a funerary monument with a casket engraved with the Greek words Petros eni, or “Peter is here.”
Following subsequent investigations, Italian archeologist Margherita Guarducci published a paper asserting that she had found the bones of St. Peter near the site identified as his tomb.
Fragments of the bones of St. Peter inside the bronze reliquary, Nov. 24, 2013
In 1968, Pope Paul VI, convinced of the authenticity of the discovery, commissioned a bronze reliquary for nine bone fragments and kept the relics in his private chapel in the Apostolic Palace, where they have remained until now. Each year, on the June 29 liturgical feast of St. Peter and Paul, the relics were displayed in the chapel for the private veneration of the Roman Pontiff.
The other relics of St. Peter still remain in a small niche in the wall under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, in the place they were originally discovered.
Pope Francis incenses relics of St. Peter at concluding Mass for the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict XVI, Nov. 24, 2013, St. Peter's Basilica.
The nine bone fragments have been displayed only once for public veneration, on November 24, 2013, when Pope Francis had the reliquary placed next to the altar during the closing Mass for the Year of Faith, opened by Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis removed the reliquary from the private chapel of the popes on June 29, the liturgical feast of the Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul, Patrons of Rome.
Archbishop Job of Telmessos, who headed the official delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, said that after the papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, Pope Francis invited him to accompany him to the tomb of St. Peter under the main altar.
The archbishop said that after the two prayed together at St. Peter’s tomb, the Pope told him he had a “gift for the Church of Constantinople.” The Pope invited the archbishop to accompany him to the Apostolic Palace. There, in the private chapel of the popes, Francis took the reliquary and gave it to Archbishop Job.
“When we entered the chapel,” the Orthodox archbishop said, “Pope Francis explained to me that Pope Paul VI wanted to keep a part of the relics of St. Peter from the Vatican Basilica in his private chapel.”
Pope Francis told him: “I no longer live in the Apostolic Palace, I never use this chapel, I never [celebrate] Holy Mass here, and we have St. Peter’s relics in the basilica itself, so it will be better if they will be kept in Constantinople.”
“This is my gift to the Church of Constantinople,” the Pope added, as he handed over the relics. “Please take this reliquary and give it to my brother Patriarch Bartholomew.”
“This gift is not from me, it is a gift from God,” he said.
Admitting to being somewhat taken aback by the Pope’s decision, Archbishop Job said: “This is an extraordinary and unexpected event that we did not expect. The relics of the Holy Apostle Peter were always kept in Rome where they were the purpose of pilgrimages.”
“The Orthodox Church has never asked for them since they never belonged to the Church of Constantinople,” the archbishop added. “This time, we do not speak of a return of relics to their original place. This time, the relics are being presented as a gift. This prophetic gesture is another huge step on the path to concrete unity.”
But some observers view the gesture as an ominous sign for the Church and for Rome.
“Pope Francis literally gave St. Peter away,” one source in Rome told LifeSite. “Incredible as a gesture.”
“The relics were in the Pope’s private chapel,” a priest noted. “He clearly prefers to make a ‘gesture’ of the relics than to pray before them and receive special graces from his patron, the first Pope.”
“It is an entirely secular way of thinking, and what he reaps — secularization — he will sow for the whole Church, in a way no one expects,” he added.
In comments to LifeSite, another priest in Rome noted how important “locus,” i.e. place, is in Catholic thought, and added that it was the Lord’s will that Peter be martyred in Rome.
The priest pointed out that Christian art and literature have depicted Peter fleeing crucifixion in Rome during Emperor Nero’s persecution. According to a Christian tradition, on a road outside the city, Peter met the risen Jesus. In the Latin translation, Peter asks Jesus, “Quo vadis, Domine?,” to which the risen Lord responds: “Romam eo iterum crucifigi” (“I am going to Rome to be crucified again”). The vision gave Peter the courage to return to the city, where he was martyred by being crucified upside down.
“I strongly suspect this is a sign that St. Peter’s protection will be leaving the Vatican,” an observer in Rome said. “What to watch for next: Francis gives relics of St Paul to Protestants. It would be in the same line as the logic of this move. And it would further remove divine protection, preparing St Peter’s for a devastation not seen since the sack of Rome in the 1500s.”
On the evening of June 29, the relics were transferred from Rome to Constantinople, accompanied by Monsignor Andrea Palmieri, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. On June 30, they were exposed for public veneration during a solemn Divine Liturgy celebrated by Patriarch Bartholomew, who described Pope Francis’s decision as a “brave and bold” gesture.
The reliquary is now being kept at the ecumenical patriarchate in Istanbul.
“Often signs are given to us,” one observer commented on Twitter following the news. “St. Peter leaving Rome for the East means only one [thing]: the judgment has been passed upon Rome.
Ditto. Ditto.
Agree with you 100%
I thought nothing Francis did could surprise me, but this did. Among other things, I'm amazed that he is arrogant enough to give such a thing away as if it were his personal property. By the way, the guide on our tour today did mention that one box was kept in the private chapel, but she was clearly unaware that they had been given away.
For those who haven't been there, the necropolis is an inherently space limited area. You can book a tour online -- there is no special trick to getting in -- but you should do so well in advance as only a couple of hundred people a day are permitted to go through. The archeology is pretty solid on the probability that the remains are indeed those of Peter.
One interesting twist that I hadn't known, however, is that Peter's bones had been reinterred in their present hidden location in an ancient wall sometime between 150 A.D. and 300 A.D. The move was done even before Constantine built the first church over the site. Peter's first burial site was a poor man's grave, a simple hole in the ground with a rough facing. That is still there. The early Christian community in Rome then built a modest monument in the style of tombs of the period over the original site, and shifted the bones slightly to place them in the new structure. All of this was later covered by the great churches built on the site.
The Papacy is the place of Christ and matters of faith and morals he is infallible.....always has been.
“Peoples private chapel” = pope’s private chapel. I HATE autocorrect. Had to fix it twice just while doing this correction. Perhaps “pope” is no longer recognized in the dictionaries of our high tech mind controllers.
you gave up the true Christian religion of CHRIST because of the actions of 1 man????????????????????
3He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.
4He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
5He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. 6For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.
2 Kings 18:1-6 NASB
Rome needs to follow the example of Hezekiah.
The lengths RCs go to in order to justify their worship of the created thing.
Maybe starting in the 5th century...maybe.
But to say it's the place of Christ is a stretch.
I doubt it. Pope Paul VI shamelessly gave his episcopal ring to the Anglican, Michael Ramsey, in 1966; and Pope John Paul II even more shamefully kissed that same ring on the finger of the Archdruid Rowan Williams in 2003.
The post-conciliar popes have been trashing the papacy, bit by bit, in the name of VC II's "ecumania".
Yeah, OK, sure...
If that’s true we are in deep trouble.
“Non Serviam” will use any excuse possible.
The lengths some people, ealgeone, will go to bear false witness against their neighbors.
I was never officially Catholic, so, no, I didn’t.
For instance: prostration, or bowing to the ground.
I found 25 instances in the OT in 5 minutes, and I didn't even do a thorough search. God-pleasing people throughout the OT prostrate themselves, in literally dozens of instance, to husbands, to prophets, to brethren, to the Ark, to kings, to fathers, to conquerors, to kinsmen, to Jerusalem, to Levites, to creditors, to the Temple and it is not called out as idolatry or fetishism.
But people who are closed off to Biblical practices of honor ---many levels of honor to the many, many to whom honor is due (as Paul noted) wouldn't see any relevance in this.
Constant denegration of other people's sense of regard, honor, reverence and sacredness shows a very stunted grasp of the very many beautiful gestures of the heart that Glorify God.
More on that late. I'm off to a picnic. And yes, there will be beer!
Roman Catholicism would do well in the Old Testament.
One day they may get to the New Testament.
You have to be kidding. This guy is a left wing, socialist politician.
I grieve over what you said. This guy is antiChrist. Christ said, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” This pope ignores theTen Commandments and makes up his own rules.. He is a fraud.
or things that should be worshipped or prayed to.
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