Year of St Paul Closes with Masses Around the World

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
26 Jun 2009

Pope Benedict XVI will close the Pauline Jubilee Year at St Peter's Basilica Outside the Walls while seven of his representatives will simultaneously end the 12 months celebrations at sites where St Paul once preached.

Pontifical Bishops and Cardinals and local priests will celebrate Masses dedicated to St Paul at churches in the Holy Land, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and Malta.

In Sydney, the end of the Year of St Paul will also be marked with a Solemn Mass held on the same day at St Mary's Cathedral. The special Mass at the Cathedral will begin at 10.30 am on Sunday June 28 and will be celebrated by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell.

"St Paul has influenced the Church and its thinking throughout the Centuries," the Holy Father said in a recent appeal to modern Catholics to follow St Paul's example.

"The action of the Church is credible and effective only to the extent that Christians are willing to pay personally for their faith in Christ, whatever the situation, and when that commitment is lacking, the appeal of the Gospel is made weaker," he said.

Beginning on June 29, 2008, The Year of St Paul was proclaimed by the Pontiff in celebration of what is believed to be the 2000th anniversary of the Apostle's birth.

"St. Paul left behind an extraordinary spiritual heritage and his teachings continue to strengthen and renew the Church," the Pontiff said when announcing the Pauline Jubilee Year at St Peter's Basilica.

"The Church needs modern Christians who will imitate St Paul the Apostle missionary's energy and spirit of sacrifice.

"St Paul's remarkable achievements, however, were not due so much to his abilities as an orator but rather to his extraordinary personal involvement in proclaiming the Gospel, and his total dedication to Christ."

Remarkably, shortly before the beginning of the Pauline year, excavators discovered a roughly cut marble sarcophagus buried under the main altar of St Peter's Basilica. Unearthed and examined by experts from the Vatican, the sarcophagus has now been identified as the ancient tomb of St Paul whom, it is believed, was martyred nearby.

A prolific writer of letters and testaments, more is known about St Paul than perhaps any other figure in the Bible. Not only are his letters part of the New Testament shedding light not only on his teachings of the mystery of Christ, but on his own conversion, spirituality, anxieties and problems. Luke's Acts of the Apostles also provides a fund of information about St Paul.

Born into a Jewish family in Tarsus, in what is now Turkey sometime between AD 7 and AD 10, St Paul was originally named Saul, and as the son of a Roman citizen was sent to Jerusalem to attend the rabbinical school at Gamaliel. He received a broad education and studied the philosophies of such diverse groups as the Greeks, Romans, Cynics and Stoics. This knowledge of other cultures and their customs would later make him the ideal evangelist.

Initially a persecutor of Christians, St Paul was converted on the road to Damascas and becoming persecuted himself, continued to proclaim the Gospel and preach the Word of God.

From the time of his conversion at approximately age 38, St Paul made the founding of the Church and the converting his fellow men and women to Christianity his mission. Embarking on journeys across Asia Minor, Europe and the Middle East, he preached to both Jews and Gentiles. But like the Christians he had once vilified, he was now attacked. Arrested in Jerusalem sometime around 59 AD, he was held in chains for two years until finally as a Roman citizen, he was transported to Rome where he served another two  under house arrest before he case came for trial. Found guilty and under immense suffering, he was martyred when, tradition has it, he was executed at a public beheading.

Since then, the life of St Paul has been celebrated across the world and the Church's greatest and earliest evangelist has not only been remembered, but has served as an inspiration to Christians everywhere.

For the Pauline Family in Australia, the year has had particular significance. The Society of St Paul for brothers and priests was founded by Blessed Fr James Alberione in 1914 and followed a year later by the Daughters of St Paul, with the specific mission of keeping St Paul alive by proclaiming the Good Word through the Media apostolate.  

Since then, further institutes have been added to the Pauline family including the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master, the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd, the Queen of Apostles Sisters, together with the Union of Pauline Cooperators.

Using mass media to spread the word, the Pauline Family in Australia are perhaps best known as publishers with their St Paul Book Centres, Pauline Books and Media Centres and St Pauls Publicaltions at Strathfield.

The Year of St Paul will be followed on June 29 with the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, and for the next 12 months, Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed a new Jubilee Year and dedicated 2009-2010 as the Year of the Priest.