Pope Benedict brought back another Church tradition yesterday with his first visit outside the Vatican to pay homage at the tomb of St. Paul the Apostle. The pilgrimage to the 4th century Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, in the southern suburbs of Rome, will be the first time the new Pontiff has made an official foray outside the tiny Vatican City state since his election on April 19. Such visits to the church, the largest in Rome after St. Peter’s Basilica, were once a feature of papal installations but had fallen by the wayside in more recent times.

A Vatican statement said the visit would underscore the “inseparable link” with the Apostles Peter and Paul, the founders of the Roman Catholic Church. St. Peter was the Church’s first Pontiff and Benedict, the German former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, paid homage at his tomb in the crypt beneath the main altar inside St. Peter’s before his inaugural Mass on Sunday. That stop was a new feature of the rituals that mark the start of a new papacy but much of what Benedict has done in his early days as Pope has been to return to long-held traditions.

The shimmering gold vestments Benedict wore for his investiture on Sunday had once been worn by John Paul – thus symbolising continuity with his long-serving predecessor – but he is already making his own mark on the papacy in subtle ways. Since he appeared on the main balcony of St. Peter’s last Tuesday to salute the crowds who had waited for two days for the white smoke that signals a Pope has been chosen, he has worn red slippers – John Paul always wore brown leather shoes.

He has slowly grown more relaxed since his election, but has also signalled he is by no means the showman – at least not yet – that the late Polish Pontiff became from day one. After Sunday’s ceremony, Benedict toured the crowd in St. Peter’s Square to wave and smile from an open-topped vehicle, but during the Mass he stuck to Latin for the liturgy and delivered his lengthy sermon entirely in Italian. Some of the German pilgrims had a chance to hear the Pope speak his own language yesterday at a special audience in the Vatican.

<B>Paul Holmes</B>