Rome takes the feast day of its patron saints, Peter and Paul, very seriously and with different types of festivities. At the Vatican, Pope Francis highlighted the apostolic zeal of the two apostles, whose example shows that faith should not be lived only privately.
POPE FRANCIS
The purpose of all of this is not an intimate, consoling religiosity as some movements in the Church propose to us, a superficial spirituality. No. The opposite.
The Pope also criticized the fact that in the Church there are groups which are excessively narrow-minded and do not even allow Christ to enter. He said this recalling the scene in the Gospel where God opens the prison where Peter is. But after the first pope is freed, he is not accepted in the early Christian community.
POPE FRANCIS
The prison doors are open because of the Lord's strength. But Peter is unable to enter the house of the Christian community. The person at the door thinks he is a ghost and does not open the door. How often do communities fail to learn this wisdom of opening the doors.
Pope Francis' voice was noticeably raspy. Yet this did not prevent him from delivering his homily with this call for conversion within the Church.
On this feast day, the statue of St. Peter is adorned with pontifical vestments, whose characteristic color is red.
The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is one of the celebrations that unites the pope with the rest of the dioceses around the world. The Pope blesses the palliums that the nuncios will later bestow on the archbishops in their own dioceses, even though typically all of them travel to Rome to participate in this celebration.
In the past, the cardinal protodeacon, the one who announces “Habemus Papam” to the world, was the one in charge of imposing the pallium on the archbishops. While today he does not hold this role, he is still present at the celebration. The protodeacon is in charge of presenting the Pope to the archbishops. In this case, it would be 92 year old Renato Raffaelle Martin, but for years, he has been replaced by the American Cardinal Michael Harvey.
JRB
TR: KG
