St Paul's-without-the-Walls


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The church of St Paul's-without-the-Walls - the name simply means, "outside the city walls" - is a massive modern structure whose claim to fame in all the tourist books is that contains the burial place of the apostle St Paul. I am not aware of any reliable archaeological evidence that would back up this claim, but hundreds of pilgrims flock there every day to pray in front of a stone sarcophagus which is supposed to hold the apostle's mortal remains.

I was diffident about filming at first, unwilling to disturb people at their devotions, until I observed that of the three pilgrims kneeling at the shrine, two were busy taking photographs. After that I concluded that what was good enough for a pilgrim was good enough for me.

I was intrigued by the pictures of all the popes which were placed in roundels high up on the walls of the church. Nearly all the early names are preceded by the letter "S.", short for "Saint". However there came a point when the list of saints came to an abrupt end, and after that saints were few and far between.

In this film I make some unflattering references to the past of the Roman Catholic church. I want to make it clear that I have great admiration for that institution. Other branches of the Christian church have had equally unfortunate pasts - and if they have not been in existence long enough to have a past, I have no doubt that were they to be faced with the temptation of political power, they would be equally, if not more, corrupted by it.