Confident Awaiting

Without doubt, when the hour of great revelation comes, it will be most solemn, and all the Christian world will hail it with renewed manifestations of faith and gratitude." These words over the Vatican radio last week heightened the anticipation that was spreading throughout the Roman Catholic world: had the tomb of St.

Peter at last been found? Delicate Digging. Throughout the centuries, the appearance and location of St. Peter's tomb has been a rich source of controversy and legend. The Liber Pontificalis, a chronicle of papal history from the ist to the 15th Century, maintained that after St. Peter was crucified head downward in Nero's Circus, somewhere between 64 and 67 A.D., his body was buried in a pagan cemetery near by. Pious legend tells how Constantine, who built the first basilica over St. Peter's tomb (begun 323 A.D.), had Peter's remains embedded in 40 tons of molten bronze overlaid with 30 pounds of pure gold in the shape of a cross. But the tomb of St. Peter, presumably filled with earth to protect it from invading barbarians, has never been found. Some Protestant scholars have argued that Peter was never in Rome at all. In 1937, when he was Papal Secretary of State, Pius XII became interested in the ancient tombs uncovered by Vatican workers burrowing below ground to check on the foundations supporting St. Peter's dome. When he became Pope, he gave orders for further investigations. For the past nine years, delicate digging has been under way beneath the great basilica. An official account of these secret labors is reported to be in preparation, perhaps to be made public at the beginning of the Holy Year of 1950. Delicate Matter. Last week the New York Times front-paged a long dispatch from its able Vatican reporter, Camille Cianfarra, indicating that not only had St. Peters' tomb been discovered but his bones as well. They were buried, Cianfarra had heard, in no bronze and gold.

Instead, St. Peter's 1,900-year-old bones were said to have been found in a plain terra cotta urn less than 20 feet below the floor of the cathedral, surrounded by scattered gold coins of the period when Peter died. Since their discovery, Reporter Cianfarra was told, the bones have been guarded by the Pope himself, in the private chapel next to his study. As the Italian press took off with a whir of speculation, the Vatican was significantly careful neither to confirm nor deny the New York Times story. Summarizing an article titled "Premature News and Confident Awaiting" in Quotidiano, official newspaper of Catholic Action, the Vatican radio reminded listeners: "It is well to observe that in an important and delicate matter one should adhere to official and definite news .

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