Snippets from Page 22 and 23 of 373 pages:Few of the faithful in St Peter’s on this festival of the apostles realize that over
a thousand years ago a decision was made to separate the heads of Peter and Paul from their trunks. Those heads have been
kept ever since in St John Lateran which is the pope’s cathedral and the mother-church of Christendom. St John Lateran was also built by Constantine next to the Lateran palace which he bestowed on the Bishop of Rome.
By the ancient laws of Rome and the canons of Catholic theology, it follows that Peter is not really buried in St Peter’s but with Paul in St John Lateran. where the head is, so runs the ancient maxim, there is the place of burial. Even today, pastoral practice considers the head the most important part of the remains. In a case of decapitation or a mangled death, it is the head that is anointed with sacred chrism. ... ...
It is there, strictly speaking, that both apostles are buried together. Since St John Lateran is also ‘the Mother and Head of all the churches in the city and in the world’ it is surely there that the Holy Father should have celebrated mass on the festival of St Peter and St Paul.
There is an over-riding reason why he did not do so.The pope says mass with Peter’s trunk beneath his feet. Two hundred feet above his head there is something far more important than Peter’s remains: words of the Lord. In
letters five feet high, running round the dome, is the most famous of all puns:
‘Tu es petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam’ - ‘Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ Scholars assume that in the original Aramaic, the pun was perfect: Peter and Rock are both Cepha.
This is the text that forms the background of all Pope John Paul’s thinking. Who would doubt that he frequently takes this text, in all humility, for his meditation? This text is
the reason why pontiffs now prefer to celebrate the feast of St Peter and St Paul in St Peter’s, rather than in the more obvious place, St John Lateran. For Roman pontiffs claim to be successors not of Peter
and Paul but of
Peter alone.
The New Testament speaks of Peter as the apostle to the Jews and Paul as apostle to the Gentiles. But in the pope’s mind, Peter was Paul’s superior; Peter had jurisdiction over Paul and the other disciples. This
authority was given Peter by the Lord himself
in those words circling the great dome. It is this supreme authority that he, John Paul II, has inherited. Why is it, his Holiness must wonder, that Protestants cannot be logical? Jesus, the Son of God, gave Peter supremacy over the church; this supremacy must remain in the church as a permanent office; he, John Paul, is the present holder of this office.
There is, however, another interpretation of this text with a better pedigree than most Catholics realize. It may jolt them to hear that the great Fathers of the church saw no connection between it and the pope. Not one of them applies ‘Thou art Peter’ to anyone but Peter.
One after another they analyse it: Cyprian, Origen, Cyril, Hilary, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine. They are not exactly Protestants.
Not one of them calls the Bishop of Rome a Rock or applies to him specifically the promise of the Keys. This is as staggering to Catholics as if they were to find no mention in the Fathers of the Holy Spirit or the resurrection of the dead. The great pun, the play on words, was applied exclusively to Peter.
The surprises do not stop there. For the Fathers, it is
Peter’s faith - or the Lord in whom Peter has faith - which is called the Rock, not Peter. All the Councils of the church
from Nicaea in the fourth century to Constance in the fifteenth agree that Christ himself is the only foundation of the church, that is, the Rock on which the church rests.Read More: 👀