be translated as peter is within. for guarducci, this is enormously exciting, and then she discovers that there are actually some bones in a nearby niche that had been discovered previously, and they had then been stored in a shoe box. these remains were stored away in a vatican storeroom, along with multiple artifacts that were recovered. their true significance was not evident to the people who stored them away. guarducci becomes convinced these bones are a significant find. guarducci is able to persuade the pope to have these bones analyzed by the same team from the university of palermo. amazingly, these scientists confirmed that these bones are in fact from a powerfully built man who had died between the age of 60 and 70. the bones discovered under
the vatican in the 1940s place a man of the right age, in the right place, at the right time. it s quite striking that these different pieces of evidence should triangulate in this particular way. the evidence of the inscriptions and the archaeological remains, convince paul vi that these are the bones of peter, and in these circumstances, he makes a dramatic announcement to the world, to the faithful, that the remains of peter, the founder of the church in rome, have indeed been recovered. one can only imagine the excitement, both of the bishop of rome and these vatican experts. the bones found beneath st. peter s are the exact same bones that pope francis displayed for the first time in 2013, but are these really peter s bones? once the vatican has made a statement like, we think these are the bones of peter, no one s ever going to have the freedom to return to them in
when you put those two things together, you have a risk of maybe exceeding or going beyond the evidence. as the vatican refused further scientific analysis, we may never know if the bones really belong to peter. you can understand why the vatican would be so reluctant of the bones dated because they could come back with the wrong answer. what s more, there s no definitive evidence that peter actually stepped foot in the eternal city. given the roman catholics think that the pope has a very special role in delivering god s message on earth, precisely because he s the descendant of peter, it s important that peter made it there. if he didn t, then the foundations of the catholic church start to crumble. y ? it means it s much more expensive.
pope francis causes a sensation. 2013 was a year of faith. and as part of an extra reward for pilgrims who had come, pope francis displayed these nine bones. and he s essentially making the claim that he s holding right there the bones of the person who founded the church of rome. the revelation of peter s bones makes headlines around the world. this is something that has never happened before. the vatican this morning publicly displayed what s believed to be bone fragments from st. peter and the world s first pope. for most faith fful catholic they had no idea that such things existed. they had never been made public and have been kept inside this a private chapel for the pope and his inner circle. this is a very thrilling moment for catholicss all over the
dame to rome he stayed in that villa and lived here. so that s the association with peter. not a burial, but he actually was active in this place. there s no disputing that these traditions were very, very strong. we have literary traditions, archaeological evidence, we have this graffiti. so we have a lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing that ties us back to the exact time and place which we really need to say that peter was here in this place. it s controversial, but could science now provide that missing evidence? professor tom are relic hunters from oxford university. they aren t allowed access to the bones found e beneath the vatican, so they have tracked down two teeth believed to have come from peter to a a basilica in belgium. he thinks the relics were brought here from rome in the 7th century.