STS. PETER AND PAUL, "TWO PILLARS OF THE CHURCH"

VATICAN CITY, JUN 30, 1999 (VIS) - Pope John Paul focussed today's general audience catechesis on yesterday's solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, calling them "princes of the apostles" and two "pillars of the Church," and recounting their individual lives and roles in the founding and early days of the Church.

The Pope pointed out that this solemnity is a very ancient celebration. He recalled that St. Peter, "a fisherman from Bethsaida, was chosen by Christ as the founding stone of the Church. St. Paul ... went from persecuting Christians to being the apostle of peoples. ... Both ended their lives with martyrdom in Rome. ... The Pope invokes the authority of these two 'pillars of the Church' when, in official acts, he refers tradition to its source, which is the Word of God, preserved and transmitted by the apostles.

The Holy Father also explained that the rite of imposing the pallium on newly created metropolitan archbishops on this June 29 solemnity dates to the first centuries of the Christian era.
There are two particularly significant aspects of this rite, he said. One is "the special relationship between the metropolitan archbishops with the Successor of Peter and, as a result, with Peter himself." The second regards the lambs whose wool is shorn to make the pallium. "The lamb ... is the symbol of the Lamb of God who took the sins of the world upon Himself and offered Himself to redeem mankind. Lamb and Shepherd, Christ continues to watch over his flock and entrusts it to the care of those who sacramentally represent Him."

"With great sadness," the Pope then concluded, "I have learned of the death of His Holiness Karekin I, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all the Armenians. A deep bond of affection linked me to him. Having had the occasion to personally meet him twice during the visits that he paid me in recent years, I was able to admire his spiritual stature, his intense love of the Church and his concern for the unity of all Christians in Christ's one flock. I had so wished to be able to pay him a visit of fraternal friendship, but circumstances did not allow me."

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