In the "brotherly relation" between the apostles Peter and Andrew, "the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople feel like special sisters". This was recalled today by Benedict XVI, during the traditional Wednesday audience, focussed on the figure of Andrew, "the first apostle to be called to follow Jesus". And just on these grounds, said the Pope, "the liturgy of the Byzantine Church honours him with the appellation Protóklitos, the first called". "And one thing for sure, he added partly due to the brotherly relation between Peter and Andrew, the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople feel like special sisters. To highlight this relationship, my predecessor, Pope Paul VI, in 1964 gave the relics of Saint Andrew, which until then had been kept in the Vatican Basilica, back to the Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Patras, in Greece, where, as tradition goes, the Apostle was crucified". The commemoration of the figure of the apostle Andrew comes a few days before the feast of Saint Peter and Paul (June 29th) when a delegation of the Ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople is expected to come to Rome to reciprocate the visit of the delegation of the Holy See to Istanbul for the Feast of Saint Andrew on November 30th. Then this year, Benedict XVI will visit Turkey on the occasion of the feast of the apostle, the patron saint of the ecumenical patriarchate.
