“Today, the Latin liturgy celebrates the Feast of Saint Peter’s Church”, explained Benedict XVI, specifying that “it is a Roman tradition" which dates "from the IV century, whereby people used to thank God for the mission entrusted to the apostle Peter and his successors”. Just in Rome, highlighted the Pope, the first bishop "ended in martyrdom his run to the service of the Gospel. For this reason, the See of Rome" was "recognised as the see of Peter’s successor and the chair of its bishop was the chair of the apostle entrusted by Christ with feeding all His flock”. According to Benedict XVI, “the chair of the bishop of Rome is not just, therefore, the symbol of his service to the Roman community, but his mission of guiding all God’s people” and, quoting Saint Jerome, it is “the safe landing of truth and peace”. Then, the Pope invited the people present to stand in front of the monument of Saint Peter’s chair, a work by Bernini located in the apse of the Vatican Basilica, and invoke the Holy Spirit, “for it to support with its light and its strength the daily” service of the Pope “to all the Church”. Then, Benedict XVI greeted the Italian pilgrims, a group of whom was accompanied by the bishop of Massa Carrara, mgr. Eugenio Binini, and the pilgrims coming from France, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Spain, Latin America, Portugal, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Finally, a thought for the sick and newly-weds.
