St Peter not first Bishop of Rome?

Press, 14 August 1984, Page 12

St Peter not first Bishop of Rome?

The Apostle Peter might not have been the first Bishop of Rome as the Roman Catholic Church teaches, according to a book being published in London. The book, “Whatever Happened to the Big Fisherman 5 ’ claims St Peter probably never visited Rome and quotes the Bible as evidence that he certainly was not there for 25 years, as Christian tradition has maintained. The “Sunday Telegraph” said today the book argued that the Pope’s claim to be the successor to St Peter as Bishop of Rome was therefore false. The author is a leading judge who writes under the pen-name of “Peter Wescott,” but whose real identity is secret. He concludes in his book that neither St Peter nor St Paul could have been martyred by Nero in A.D. 67 as is commonly supposed, because the emperor was in Greece at the time. In spite of the Pope’s declaration in 1951 that the remains of St Peter had

been found under the High Altar of St Peter’s in the Vatican, the author claims that the excavations proved beyond doubt that the church was not built on the site of the Saint’s alleged martyrdom. He said the bones alleged to be those of St Peter were, in fact, those of a woman who was a pagan. St Peter died peacefully in old age.