On July 1, 1997, six and a half million FREE people of Hong Kong were sold into slavery. The butchers of Tiananmen have turned China into a vast concentration camp, where public celebration of the Roman Catholic Mass is a criminal offense, punishable by many years of prison.
Thousands of Chinese are sentenced to death and executed every year, after the forcible removal of their vital organs, which are sold for hard currency in the lucrative human organs market.
There are over 250,000 Catholics in Hong Kong; the Catholic religious orders run the school system there. Pray for the martyred Christians of China, for the Christians of Hong Kong and for their deliverance from Communist slavery! --- Michael Olteanu, M.S.
In 1546 Michelangelo Buonarroti started planning the complex of the three apses and the dome. At the time of his death in 1564 the left apse and the drum, which would be vaulted under Sixtus V in 1585, were completed. To Sixtus V we owe the positioning of the obelisk in front of the basilica in line with the high altar (1586). In 1612 the facade of the church was erected and Pope Paul V Borghese could finally declare the conclusion of the whole project.
Bernini completed the sumptuous decoration of the basilica (the Baldacchino of the High Altar and Saint Peter's Chair) and the brilliant, grandiose arrangement of Piazza di San Pietro (1656-66).