Vatican City (Fides Service) - In St Peter’s Square at 6pm, on Tuesday 29 June, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, patron saints of Rome, Pope John Paul II will preside a solemn Mass, attended by the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Before the Mass the Pope will wait inside St Peter’s to welcome the Ecumenical Patriarch who will wear liturgical choral dress and take part in the celebration of the Eucharist. The Pope and the Patriarch together will deliver the homily and recite the Creed. On that day, in keeping with tradition, the Catholic Metropolitan Archbishops apointed in the past twelve months will concelebrate with the Pope from whom during the Mass they will receive the Pallium as a sign of their office and their communion with the Bishop of Rome. The Pallium, worn also by the Pope, are kept in special casket resting on the burial place of St Peter, the first Bishop of Rome.
Announcing the Celebration, the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff informs us that this special occasion with the participation of the Ecumenical Patriarch takes place exactly 40 years since the history making embrace between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Anthenagoras in Jerusalem in January 1964. This event in 2004 is a grace from God and another step along the path mapped by the Second Vatican Council "to bring together the Church of the East and the Church of the West and the re-establishing of the unity which existed between them in the first millennium". (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/6/2004 - Righe 14; Parole 179)