VATICAN - The Pope at the Angelus: “Today, in a world which has become a little smaller, but still many people have yet to encounter the Lord Jesus, the jubilee of Saint Paul is a call to all Christians to be missionaries of the Gospel”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - At the end of Mass celebrated in St Peter's Basilica on Sunday 29 June, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, in his reflection before leading the recitation of the midday Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict spoke of the "special event, the Year of Saint Paul, which he had opened the previous evening in St Paul's Basilica, to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Nations. The Pope said the Jubilee he indicted will have its centre in Rome, especially at the tomb of St Paul and the place of his martyrdom, but it will involve the whole Church, including Tarsus Paul's birth place and places where he preached in what is today Turkey, as well as the Holy Land and the island of Malta where the Apostle was shipwrecked and sowed the seed of the Gospel. The Pope said, "the horizon of the Year of St Paul can only be universal because he was the Apostle par excellence for peoples considered by the Jews 'strangers' but who, through the blood of Christ, became 'neighbours'. So today, in a world which has become a little smaller, but still many people have yet to encounter the Lord Jesus, the jubilee of Saint Paul is a call to all Christians to be missionaries of the Gospel.”
The missionary dimension is accompanied by the dimension of unity represented by Saint Peter, the "rock" upon which Christ built his Church. The Pope said “the charisma of the two great Apostles are complementary for the edification of the one People of God and Christians cannot be valid witnesses of Christ unless they are united. The theme of unity is today underlined by the traditional rite of the Pallium which was imposed during this Mass on the shoulders of the Archbishops appointed during the past year ”. Pope Benedict XVI concluded entrusting some 'special' intentions to the intercession of Most Holy Mary, Mother of the Church and Queen of the Apostles: the Year of Saint Paul, evangelisation, communion in the Church and full unity of all Christians. At the end of the prayer the Pope greeted Rome on the feast day of its patron saints, Peter and Paul: “May your patron saints help the city and the diocese safeguard and valorise Rome's rich heritage of treasures of faith, history and art”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 30/6/2008)