In June of 2007, Pope Benedict XVI declared a jubilee year in honor of the two-thousandth anniversary of the birth of Saint Paul. The jubilee year will run from June 28, 2008, through June 20, 2009.

The tradition of a jubilee year comes down to us from Mosaic Law. It is spelled out in the book of Leviticus (see especially chapter 25) and was a time of justice and celebration. It was a time when land was fallow, debts were forgiven, land was returned to its original owners, and Hebrew slaves were set free. From a biblical tradition it is usually understood to be every fifty years, the year following seven seven-year periods or sabbaticals.

They became a Christian tradition in 1299. At that time wars and diseases, such as the plague and all kinds of ills, were causing great suffering throughout Christendom. In order to obtain the grace and strength to carry on, thousands of Christians traveled (on foot) to Rome at Christmas that year to pray at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and to receive the Pope's blessing. Boniface VIII, having learned the reason for their coming and admiring their great faith, proclaimed a "year of forgiveness of all sins."

This became the first Christian jubilee year. Boniface proclaimed that a jubilee year would be celebrated every one hundred years. However, subsequent popes changed that period to fifty, then to thirty-three, and finally Pope Paul II fixed the interval to twenty-five years.

The Year of Paul however, is what is known as an exceptional, or extraordinary, jubilee year. A jubilee is "ordinary" if it falls after a set period of time and "extraordinary" if it marks a special event. Pope Leo X promulgated the first exceptional jubilee year in 1518 to support the Poles against the Turkish threat. Leo Xiii promulgated one in 1886 in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. And Pius XI held one in 1933 to mark the 1900th anniversary of Redemption.

While it was Pope Benedict who promulgated this extraordinary Jubilee Year of Saint Paul, the idea has its roots in another man, Andrea Cardinal Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, where tradition tells us that Saint Paul is buried. In a recent interview in his office at the basilica, the Cardinal shared with me a little of his own life and his connection with the Jubilee Year of Saint Paul.

"I proposed to Pope Benedict XVI that we hold a Jubilee Year for Saint Paul to celebrate the two-thousandth anniversary of his birth, and he agreed with enthusiasm," Andrea Cardinal Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo said. The Cardinal, who has been responsible for the basilica since 2006, continued, "The basilica has always been identified with ecumenism, and this will be a major focus of the Jubilee Year.

"Unfortunately Paul is less well known than he should be," Cardinal Montezemolo explained. "His thought is rewarding but complex and so needs sustained attention. The jubilee will give us an opportunity to learn more about Paul and his teachings," he said.

In 2006 both excitement and confusion followed the announcement that Saint Paul's tomb had been discovered—partly because the Italian word scoperto translates as both "discovered" and "uncovered." In fact, a wall at one end of the tomb was removed.

When I asked Cardinal Montezemolo if the tomb would be opened for the Jubilee, he said that it would not. "It is too big a task to be completed before the Jubilee. It would be a mistake to have a work yard surrounding the tomb during that period. I hope that can be done later by my successor," he added.

"It is the unbroken and never contested tradition that Paul is buried here," the Cardinal continued. "The basilica was built precisely because he lay here, just as St. Peter's was built above Peter's burial place. Two years ago we uncovered the end of Paul's sarcophagus by removing part of a wall so that now it can be seen by all. The wall was built around the fourth or fifth century, probably as protection against frequent flooding of the nearby Tiber River. The rest of the tomb has to be detached from this wall, and Arnolfo di Cambio's thirteenth-century canopy above the tomb will have to be dismantled. They are both daunting tasks."

Montezemolo was made a cardinal in 2006, after serving more than four decades in the Vatican diplomatic corps. Although some object to the large number of red hats given to those at the end of their diplomatic service, Montezemolo brought a rich background to the College of Cardinals.

Born into a well-known Turin aristocratic family in 1925, he was the son of a colonel in the Italian Army who headed a clandestine Resistance force in Rome during World War II. As a teenager Andrea aided his father in the Resistance to the Nazi Germans and Italian Fascists.

After a Communist partisan's bomb killed thirty German soldiers in central Rome, the Germans rounded up more than three hundred Italian civilians and killed them as a reprisal. Andrea's father was one of the victims in this notorious vendetta, which took place in the Ardeatine Caves on the outskirts of Rome. The tragic event is still commemorated each year, and Andrea's father is honored as a Catholic Resistance leader. One of the German officers who carried out the slaughter, Erich Priebke, is still being held in Rome. Cardinal Montezemolo has called for his release.

Cardinal Montezemolo admits that his father's shooting had a profound impact on him. "I would not say it explains my vocation—vocations should not be explained but accepted. But it was hugely important," he said.

Shortly after his father's death, a Montezemolo Battalion was formed within the Italian forces fighting alongside the Americans and their allies as they pursued the retreating Germans north of Rome. Andrea was a private in the Montezemolo Battalion, refusing even the rank of corporal.

After the war Andrea graduated with a degree in architecture. He worked with Pier Luigi Nervi, who among other things, constructed the Paul VI Audience Hall for papal audiences and also taught architecture at La Sapienza University in Rome.

A brilliant architectural career seemed likely for Montezemolo, and his background would have been an advantage—his family is a historic one. Its best-known representative at the moment is a cousin, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, president of the Fiat motor works and Ferrari, the world-champion racing cars.

Instead of pursuing a career in architecture, however, Andrea entered the priesthood. He was ordained in 1954, and then attended the school for Vatican diplomats. He saw service in Asia, Africa, Central America, and the Middle East. In 1976 he was appointed secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and in 1977 he became the first Vatican nuncio to Papua New Guinea. When he arrived in Port Moresby, the capital of New Guinea, there were only thirteen miles of sealed roads out of the city. While in Central America, he twice had to conduct tense negotiations with Honduran terrorists, who had seized hostages. In the first case he obtained the release of all thirty airline passengers; in the second, he negotiated successfully to save a hundred businessmen.

Although he is now retired, Cardinal Montezemolo says his years as a diplomat in four continents were at times tough, at times dramatic, but always enlightening. And now with preparations for the Jubilee, the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls says he's never been busier.