Even today, in a world that’s become smaller but where very many people have not met the Lord Jesus yet, the Jubilee of Saint Paul invites all Christians to be the missionaries of the Gospel". This was said by the Pope who, at yesterday’s Angelus, mentioned the "extraordinary event" of the Pauline Year, officially opened by Benedict XVI on June 29th at the Apostle’s grave, due to end on June 29th 2009. "Historians – recalled the Pope date the birth of Saul, then named Paul, to between 7 and 10 Anno Domini. So, after about two thousand years, I wished to launch this special Jubilee, which will be obviously focussed on Rome, especially on the Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura and the place of the martyrdom, Tre Fontane. But it will involve the whole Church, starting from Tarsus, Paul’s birthplace, and the other Pauline places, which are places of pilgrimage, in today’s Turkey, as well as in the Holy Land and on the Isle of Malta, where the Apostle landed after a shipwreck and sowed the fruitful seed of the Gospel". In fact, according to the Holy Father, "the horizon of the Pauline Year cannot but be universal, because Saint Paul has been the epitome of the apostle of those who, compared with the Jewish, were ‘the distant ones’ and that ‘through Christ’s blood’ have become ‘the near ones’". (continued)
