(September 13, 2015 at 7:59 pm)abaris Wrote: Nice to see you're back, Randy.
And how would you go about proving these to be the bones of Saint Peter? Is there any kind of Peter DNA analysis I'm not aware of?
And no, I'm not looking up what John Evangelist Walsh wrote in 1982. That's a lot of water under the bridge since then. And the name hints at just a little bit of bias. There were up to 18 prepuces attributed to Jesus. So either Jesus had a prick to make an elephant proud or the whole relique business is just what it looks like - a lucrative way to rip people off.
The bones cannot be proven to be those of Peter any more than the Shroud of Turin can be proven to be the burial cloth of Jesus.
However, it is an odd coincidence, isn't it? A tomb is found under the main altar of the Church that replaced the Basilica originally built by Constantine, and a bit of graffiti stating "Peter is here" is found on the wall just outside the niche where the bones of a rugged 70-year old man are found. Extraordinary.
Still, it is a pity that the Catholic Church waited almost 2,000 years before rolling this relic out...and is limiting the number of visitors who are permitted to tour the necropolis.
If it's all about money as you suggest, a great opportunity has been squandered.
