They say when Saul, that is, Saint Paul, was arrested in Palestine he was taken by the Roman governor to Caesarea to be judged on charges of having allowed some non-Jewish followers to enter the temple, which at the time was punishable by death. It seems that the agreement with Simon, that is, Saint Peter, provided for this: Saint Peter did not speak languages, Saint Paul did, he certainly knew Greek, perhaps even a little Latin, but above all he was an educated person as well as a soldier, he was the right person to bring the word of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Saint Peter, however, as a humble fisherman on the Lake of Tiberias, had been “hired” by Christ and promoted as his successor to bring the word to the rest of the Jewish population. The agreement between the two had been simple: “I who speak only Aramaic, try to convert our Jewish brothers to Christianity – Simon could have said to Saul, – you, since you know languages, try to convince the pagans to become Jews and followers of Jesus Christ.” Therefore Saint Paul he began a tour de force going around Syria, Asia, which at that time was limited to today’s Turkey, and Greece where he had a fair amount of success in converting the pagans. The problem then arose when these new Christians were brought by him to the temple. How dare he?! The Jewish hierarchies rose up, as they had done some time before with Jesus Christ, condemned him to death and took him to the Roman governor for confirmation of the sentence, since Judaic province was under Roman administration. But Saul had an ace up his sleeve: when they gave him the floor to exonerate himself he pulled it out: you cannot judge me – he said – I am a Roman citizen and I appeal to Caesar! Everyone was speechless, but he was right: a Roman citizen could not be judged and put to death, moreover on the cross as it was for slaves and barbarians, he had to be judged by Caesar, if he appealed to him and in case he was found guilty, beheaded, since beheading was considered a privilege, more honorable and less atrocious than crucifixion.
So it was that he was put on board together with other prisoners and sent along the Mediterranean to Ostia and then to Rome where he remained under “house arrest”, for about two years in the Regola district, during which it seems he went around to visit other expatriate Jews there resident of the Christian sect, accompanied night and day by his faithful servant, who was also the jailer, to whom he was tied by a thin chain on his outings.
At the end of the two years of arrest, it seems that Saint Paul was found innocent and freed. It was under the reign of Emperor Nero, depicted by many as crazy, eccentric and bloodthirsty, but probably only because of a prejudice related to his passive homosexuality, because active homosexuality, as we know, was widely tolerated and practiced by previous and subsequent emperors. During this time, Saint Paul spent several years traveling between Italy and Greece, perhaps Spain, visiting various communities and writing his famous epistles.
We know very well that history is not made with hypotheses. But here we are only fantasizing. Had Saulo not been subsequently executed by beheading on the Laurentina road, in the district callled Tre Fontane, today we probably would not have one of the most beautiful papal basilicas: Saint Paul Outside the Walls, built on his burial site.
We have historical evidence of his travels and his presence in Rome. We know for sure that Paul was in Rome and we also know the reason: it was due to the previous agreement stipulated with Simon, Saul had to bring the word throughout the Roman world which was bilingual as they spoke Latin and Greek, therefore also to Rome, where he felt at home.
But what was Simon, or Peter, doing in Rome, he who did not understand a thing about Latin and Greek, being an illiterate fisherman only speaking Aramaic, even though he was the successor of Christ, who had been charged with founding his church in Jerusalem?
This remains completely incomprehensible. A mystery that has not been revealed by any historical document, either direct or indirect, and which only believers are required to believe. Someone, non-believer and a little suspicious, might think that Peter’s presence in Rome was “forced”, dictated by political reasons.
How forced was Constantine’s gift to Pope Sylvester with which the Church of Rome obtained a series of territorial privileges and above all imperial legitimacy and protection. How forced was the nomination of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans by Leo III with which in exchange the Pope obtained the recognition of the Catholic religion as the state religion.
If there hadn’t been these stretchings, but above all the first one, Peter would not have been crucified upside down in Nero’s Circus in the Vatican, he would not have been buried nearby in the pagan cemetery on the side of the triumphal way, the Constantinian basilica would not have been built and then the current one in its place. But above all, the City of the Vatican, the seat of the papacy would not be Rome, but Jerusalem. In short, still fantasizing, today we in Jerusalem would perhaps have a Christian state, like the Vatican in Rome or perhaps larger, perhaps we would not even have the State of Israel, if all Jews had converted to Christianity, and perhaps we would not even have had the Jewish diaspora, and therefore not even Zionism, and thus not even the disagreement between Jews and Muslims, because Palestine would have been a Christian state and nothing more.
Incredible? Sure, we do not believe that, we are just fantasizing. Do you think it’s not normal to do this?
Why do you think it is normal to have on this land, which no one knows what to call, some call it Palestine, others call it Israel, still others the Holy Land, but to me it seems like a land that has little of the holy and a lot of the blasphemous, of blood-shed in vain, as is all human blood shed, especially if it is of children, who as such are everyone’s children, including mine and yours; a land of horror, of people who massacre each other, one against the other thinking that their religion is superior to that of others, or believing that they have the right, before others, to be on that land where they have been together with others for centuries. More than a holy land it seems to me a hellish land!
Imagine instead if there had been the papacy of a Saint Peter who had remained there without coming to do who knows what in Rome, the new Babylon for the Christians of that time, where Saint Paul was already there carrying out his task admirably. The popes, princes of peace, should not have brought their crusades to Jerusalem with the intent of reconquering it in vain with enormous expenditure of their own and others’ blood, the basilicas of the Holy Savior, of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Mary Major would not have been built in Rome but there in Jerusalem and today, our beloved Pope Francis would have been buried there, but without having shouted and been sick out of it for days, months and years asking for Peace unheard by insensitive people who massacre each other, killing old people, women and children on an industrial scale for more than 100 years always advancing excuses that no one believes anymore, except the diehards of the opposing factions. A massacre that takes place in the indifference of all those who in words say they want peace but, in fact, continue to supply the opposing factions with weapons and capital, instead of isolating them and putting them, disarmed, on their knees in front of their responsibilities.
FRANCESE
