Two churches in the Atlanta Archdiocese have been designated as pilgrimage sites during the Year of St. Paul, which began in June and concludes in June 2009.

In a decree signed Aug. 25, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory named Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Decatur, and St. Paul the Apostle Church, Cleveland, as places for Catholics to pray and participate in special religious services focused on St. Paul, honored as the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Catholics who share in the religious services may receive a plenary indulgence.

The Catholic Church is marking the Jubilee Year of St. Paul. Pope Benedict XVI announced 2008-09 as a special year marking the 2,000th anniversary of the saint’s birth. The pope said the celebrations should have a special ecumenical character, and he has urged Catholics to be inspired by St. Paul and imitate the apostle’s missionary efforts.

Archbishop Gregory’s decree began, “As the generosity and benevolence of the Holy See has established a year of devotion and spiritual grace in commemoration of the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Gentiles,” and continued with the goal, “Desiring the greater honor of the Blessed Trinity, and greater devotion to the Apostle of the Gentiles, and seeking to encourage the faithful to reap the spiritual fruits that flow from the study of the Sacred Word entrusted to the Apostle …”

Participants at the archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress, scheduled for June 12-13, 2009, may also receive the same indulgence under the usual conditions.

The means to obtain the plenary indulgence are:

All faithful “having fulfilled the required conditions (sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion, prayers for the Supreme Pontiff’s intentions) and in a spirit of total detachment from any inclination to sin, may benefit from the Plenary Indulgence if they take part devoutly in a sacred function or in a pious public exercise in honor of the Apostle to the Gentiles.”

In the decree, Archbishop Gregory said, “Those members of the faithful who make a pilgrimage … may receive the plenary indulgence upon taking part in the public exercise of devotion before the image of Saint Paul located in one of the aforementioned churches, which exercise includes the proclamation of a reading from the writings of the Apostle Paul and pious prayer to the same Apostle according to the formula which I hereby approve: God our Father/the apostle Paul preached the Gospel to all the world by word and example./By the light of your Holy Spirit, the witness of our lives, and the intercession of Saint Paul,/may the Kingdom of God flourish in the Archdiocese of Atlanta./We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”