Vatican to display bones claimed to be those of Saint Peter

On June 26, 1968, pope Paul VI made a dramatic announcement that put the Catholic Church back in the headlines for reasons other than its stance on women, abortion or contraception.

New “very patient and accurate investigations” had been carried out on bones discovered in a Roman cemetery in the Vatican, he declared. The remains had been identified, “in a way we believe to be convincing”, as those of Saint Peter, the Christian martyr who is traditionally held to have been the first pope.

On Sunday, for the first time in nearly two millennia, fragments of those bones are to be displayed in public as part of celebrations to mark the end of the Year of Faith, an initiative launched by Pope Benedict.

Held in an urn usually kept in a private papal chapel, they will be presented for public veneration in St Peter’s Square at a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis. But the decision to exhibit the relics is not without controversy. No pontiff has ever said the bones are without doubt those of St Peter and some archaeologists are fairly sure they are not.

The battle over the bones, which pits a rigorous Jesuit archaeologist against a pioneering female epigraphist, is one of the strangest stories to have come out of the Vatican during the late 20th century, and it may also be one of the least dignified.

On Monday, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, president of the pontifical council for the promotion of the new evangelisation, said he had no qualms about thrusting the relics back into the spotlight.

“We did not want to, and have no intention, of opening up any argument,” said Fisichella, who in a carefully worded article for the semi-official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano last week described the relics as those “recognised by tradition” as St Peter’s.