Pope Benedict XVI will light a votive lamp at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome to signal the beginning of a year-long celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of St. Paul, the Apostle to the Nations. The Year of St. Paul runs from June 28, 2008 to June 29, 2009.

The pope has granted the faithful Plenary Indulgences for the Year of St. Paul. The faithful can obtain the Plenary Indulgence by engaging in a pilgrimage to the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints." (CCC 1471)