A white marble sarcophagus believed to be the final resting place of the apostle Paul has been unearthed from beneath the altar of Rome’s second-largest basilica after centuries hidden from view, but those curious about its contents will have to wait still longer. Vatican experts say they want to examine it more closely before possibly looking inside. According to tradition, Paul was beheaded in Rome in the first century during the persecution of early Christians by Roman emperors. Popular belief holds that bone fragments from his head are in another Rome basilica, St. John Lateran, with his other remains inside the sarcophagus. The coffin, which was buried under the main altar of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls Basilica, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and ended last month.
-AP
Christmas trees are going back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The trees were removed over the weekend after a rabbi complained that the airport’s holiday decor did not include a menorah for Hanukkah. But when the airport got word that the rabbi was not planning to sue, it decided to bring the trees out again. The airport was worried that if it displayed a menorah, it would have to put out symbols of other religions and cultures. The president of the agency that runs the airport notes that the rabbi never asked that the Christmas trees be removed. There are no immediate plans to display a menorah but the rabbi has offered to give the port an electric one to use. After the big trees were removed, some airline workers decorated ticketing counters with their own miniature Christmas trees.
-AP
That’s the subject of a study being released today by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has lost members amid divisions over homosexuality. Last year, delegates to the denomination’s national meeting split almost evenly on whether to let homosexuals in long-term relationships serve as clergy. The proposal, which needed a two-thirds majority, failed but a church task force was told to keep studying issues of sexuality and prepare the report that is being issued today. ELCA officials say the new study will invite Lutherans “to consider human sexuality through the lens of Scripture and Lutheran teaching.”
- AP
