to breathe with both lungs, which he meant the western and eastern traditions, latin and greek traditions. so, it, too, therefore, is a symbol of unity and universality. yes. and in the gospel of t, doubtin thomas put his hand on jesus s wound so he wouldn t bleed, so it has to do with believing in miracles in some sense. and we ll also hear readings from the acts of apostles. catholics believe that their bishops, and certainly their popes, are successors of those early apostles that christ called to lead the church. we talk about apostolic succession, this kind of unbroken chain over 2,000 years of which all three of these popes, john xxiii, john paul ii, now pope francis, participate in that succession of tapostles. delia gallagher and john allen know exactly what they re talking about, our vatican experts just outside of vatican
greek. it s from the gospel of john. it has to do with the doubting thomas, when jesus appears to his apostles and one of them, thomas, doesn t believe it s him. and he says put your hand in my wounds. and this goes back to that theme of mercy and of miracles. john? and also having to do we were talking earlier about the relics and the importance of physical contact. the story of thomas is one who wanted physical contact. yes. in this case with christ to make sure this was really him. and i think it does say something about the need even though faith in some ways is a spiritual and atheerl notion, there is something in the catholic mind that once that physical, tangible reality and connection to really bring it home. yeah, and i think that was also part of john paul ii s attraction, that he had a very physical presence. certainly you felt that when you were in his presence, but there was always a mystical side to