Some days ago I had the joy of celebrating the wedding silver jubilee of a couple I befriended a year-and-a-half ago. After the Eucharist we, the family members and friends, went to enjoy a fantastic dinner at a high quality restaurant which originally was a wooden trading schooner. Upon mounting on board I felt myself going back to the perilous yet exciting times of piracy. As the roots of the word ‘peiráomai’ suggest piracy was about “attempting” to rob for personal gain. As I delved deeper into my thoughts I also became conscious of the hardships life at sea surely presents. According to a study carried out by Dr Stephen Roberts of the Department of Health at Oxford University it was shockingly found that among the occupation findings in Great Britain for the period between 1976 and 1995, fishers and merchants seafarers have the most dangerous jobs in the UK. Seafarers were 26 times more likely (and fishermen even 52 times more likely) to die of accidents at work, compared with average British workers. Although the number of work-related deaths has decreased in recent decades, in relative terms the occupations of fishing and seafaring remain as dangerous as before. Losses by “accidents at work” in merchant shipping is principally brought about by isolated disasters; such as the foundering of the bulk carrier ‘Derbyshire’ during a typhoon in the North Pacific where 42 crew and two women married to crew members submerged by the Pacific waters and the capsize of the ferry ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’ wherein 193 passengers together with the crew perished. In the Bible the boat image was meaningful for Jews and Christians alike. The Old Testament reminds us that right after Moses was detected floating in the Nile River in a boat-like basket, he was adopted by the daughter of the Pharoh (Exodus 2:10). Furthermore, Noah’s family was delivered from the great waters of the flood by building an ark (Genesis 6-9).  Then, in the New Testament, Christ transforms Saint Peter’s boat into his chosen pulpit from where he teaches the saving words of the Gospel (Luke 5:1-11). Pondering on these texts Christians gradually came to the conclusion that the boat is a symbol of the Church who is bringing the faithful to the safe harbour of salvation. That is why the architectural style of our churches has evolved under the influence of nautical terminology. Hence, the faithful attend the Sacred Liturgy from the section of the Church building which is called the “nave”. The latter is a word which is derived from the Latin word for a ship, ‘navis’. Moreover in the architectural composition of Roman basilicas one can notice more the image of the ship regarding the placement of the Bishop’s ‘cathedra’ (“seat). And the Bishop’s throne was usually put in the apse behind the altar and baldachin so as to put the bishop in the place to direct the ship. Saint Luke says that Christ comes aboard Peter’s boat. He made Peter the chief of the Apostles. By standing on the “little ship of Saint Peter”, Jesus is accentuating the Petrine primacy. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches Peter and his successors are entrusted with the keys of the Heavenly kingdom. Also Saint Cyprian of Carthage says: “On him [Peter] He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity”. Can I let the feast of Saint Peter and Paul inspire me to be more loyal to Christ by heeding to Pope Francis’ teaching?   Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap