” “SIR – 21/01/2008 A special "ecumenical chapel", meant for "offering Christian brothers requiring it a special place for prayer, for single groups visiting the tomb of St Paul as pilgrims, or maybe to pray together with Catholics, without sacrament celebration". The current change of the Baptistery located between the Basilica and the Cloister of St Paul Outside The Walls into Ecumenical Chapel was announced today by Card. Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (archbishop of the Papal Basilica St Paul Outside The Walls), while illustrating journalists the initiatives for the Pauline Year (28th June 2008 / 29th June 2009). The decision was taken by following the 2005 "Motu Proprio", said the cardinal, which fixed the usual baptism celebration to be moved (as for St. Paul’s area) "to the parish in the competent (by land) diocese of Rome". The altar containing the remains of St. Timothy of Antioch (martyrised in 311) and other unknown martyrs of the fourth century will be moved to the new chapel, announced the cardinal. This altar had been removed from St. Paul’s hypogeum in 206, "to make the sarcophagus of the apostle visible". All the activities and programmes for the Pauline Year, pointed out the cardinal, "will always be highly distinguished by a clearly ecumenical dimension". (To be continued)” “
