Post by auntym on Nov 25, 2013 11:40:39 GMT -6
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512836/St-Peters-bones-unveiled-public-Vatican-time.html
Vatican unveils bone fragments of St Peter in public for first time: Francis leads prayers in front of remains during Sunday mass
*Nine pieces of bone kept inside bronze display case for mass at St. Peter's square in Vatican City today
*Special service to commemorate Vatican's year-long celebration of the Christian faith
*Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of the service before holding them in his arms
*Debate over whether the bones, discovered in the necropolis under St Peter's Basilica in 1939, belong to first pope
By Lizzie Edmonds
PUBLISHED: 24 November 2013
The Vatican publicly unveiled a handful of bone fragments thought to belong to St Peter for the first time today.
Thousands of worshippers packed St Peter's Square to catch a glimpse of the bronze chest containing the bones.
The nine pieces were kept inside the display case on the side of the altar during a mass commemorating the end of the Vatican's year-long celebration of the Christian faith.
Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of the service and then clutched the case in his arms for several minutes after his homily.
Today's reveal will no doubt revive the debate over whether the relics truly belong to the first pope.
No pope has ever definitively declared the fragments to belong to the Apostle Peter.
However, in 1968 Pope Paul VI said the fragments, found in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica, were 'identified in a way that we can consider convincing'.
Some archaeologists dispute the findings.
But last week, a top Vatican official, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, said it doesn't matter if archaeologists one day definitively determine that the bones aren't Peter's - saying Christians have prayed at Peter's tomb for two millennia and will continue to regardless.
'It's not as if pilgrims who go to the altar [of Peter's tomb] think that in that moment in which they profess their faith that below them are the relics of Peter, or of another or another still,' he said.
'They go there to profess the faith.'
SEE PHOTOS & CONTINUE READING: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512836/St-Peters-bones-unveiled-public-Vatican-time.html
Vatican unveils bone fragments of St Peter in public for first time: Francis leads prayers in front of remains during Sunday mass
*Nine pieces of bone kept inside bronze display case for mass at St. Peter's square in Vatican City today
*Special service to commemorate Vatican's year-long celebration of the Christian faith
*Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of the service before holding them in his arms
*Debate over whether the bones, discovered in the necropolis under St Peter's Basilica in 1939, belong to first pope
By Lizzie Edmonds
PUBLISHED: 24 November 2013
The Vatican publicly unveiled a handful of bone fragments thought to belong to St Peter for the first time today.
Thousands of worshippers packed St Peter's Square to catch a glimpse of the bronze chest containing the bones.
The nine pieces were kept inside the display case on the side of the altar during a mass commemorating the end of the Vatican's year-long celebration of the Christian faith.
Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of the service and then clutched the case in his arms for several minutes after his homily.
Today's reveal will no doubt revive the debate over whether the relics truly belong to the first pope.
No pope has ever definitively declared the fragments to belong to the Apostle Peter.
However, in 1968 Pope Paul VI said the fragments, found in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica, were 'identified in a way that we can consider convincing'.
Some archaeologists dispute the findings.
But last week, a top Vatican official, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, said it doesn't matter if archaeologists one day definitively determine that the bones aren't Peter's - saying Christians have prayed at Peter's tomb for two millennia and will continue to regardless.
'It's not as if pilgrims who go to the altar [of Peter's tomb] think that in that moment in which they profess their faith that below them are the relics of Peter, or of another or another still,' he said.
'They go there to profess the faith.'
SEE PHOTOS & CONTINUE READING: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512836/St-Peters-bones-unveiled-public-Vatican-time.html