Pope Francis addresses participants in a training course promoted by the Roman Rota at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, Sept. 27, 2018. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Nov 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).
The most important church in Rome, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, is celebrating its 1,700th anniversary on Nov. 9.
The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the seat of the bishop of Rome, the pope. The adjoining palace served as the papal residence until the 14th century.
The anniversary of the dedication has been commemorated as a feast day by the whole Catholic Church since 1565 due to its importance as the “mother and head of all churches of the city and the world.”
A Latin inscription in the basilica proclaims this point in Latin: “Omnium ecclesiarum urbis et orbis mater et caput.”
“By honoring the basilica, one intends to express love and veneration for the Roman Church, which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch affirms, ‘presides over the charity’ of the entire Catholic communion,” Pope Benedict XVI said in 2008.
The Archbasilica of St. John Lateran was built after the promulgation of Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan, which in 313 granted Christians freedom to practice their religion.
Pope Sylvester I dedicated the archbasilica on Nov. 9 in the year 324. St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist became the church’s patrons in the sixth century, but it is called St. John Lateran because it was built on property donated by the Plautii Laterani family during the Roman Empire.
The Diocese of Rome celebrated the 1,700th anniversary with a full year of special festivities, including concerts, Masses, and religious-cultural talks about the history of the archbasilica and the adjoining Lateran Palace.
The jubilee will conclude on Saturday with a Mass celebrated by the diocese’s new vicar general, Cardinal-designate Baldassare Reina.
In 2008, the now-deceased Pope Benedict XVI commented on the feast of the Dedication of Rome’s Lateran Basilica in his Sunday Angelus address.
The Emperor Constantine, Benedict XVI recalled, “gave Pope Miltiades the old property of the family of the Laterans and built the basilica, baptistery, and the residence of the bishop of Rome, where the popes lived until the Avignon period.”
Pope Benedict noted the importance of the material building in which communities gather to praise God, and said, “every community has the duty to guard with care its own sacred building, which constitutes a precious religious and historical patrimony.”
“Let us invoke the intercession of Most Holy Mary to help us become, like her, a ‘house of God,’ a living temple of love,” he said.
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The library of the Pontifical Gregorian University. / Credit: Pontifical Gregorian University
CNA Staff, Mar 19, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).
The historic Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University this week announced its official merger with the Pon… […]
Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 29, 2023 / 07:30 am (CNA).
At the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass, Pope Francis said that God’s love cannot be confined “to our own agenda” and that those who truly want to reform the Catholic Church should follow Jesus’ greatest commandment: to adore God and love others with his love.
“We may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29.
“We are always at risk of thinking that we can ‘control God,’ that we can confine his love to our own agenda. Instead, the way he acts is always unpredictable, it goes beyond, and consequently, this action of God demands amazement and adoration,” he added.
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
The pope underlined that worship of Jesus in the tabernacle “in every diocese, in every parish, in every community” is necessary in the “struggle against all types of idolatry” in today’s world.
“Let us be vigilant, lest we find that we are putting ourselves at the center rather than him. And let us return to worship. May worship be central for those of us who are pastors: let us devote time every day to intimacy with Jesus the Good Shepherd in the tabernacle. Adoration,” he said.
“Only in this way will we turn to Jesus and not to ourselves. For only through silent adoration will the Word of God live in our words; only in his presence will we be purified, transformed, and renewed by the fire of his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let us adore the Lord Jesus!”
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
“Brothers and Sisters, the General Assembly of the Synod has now concluded,” he said. “In this ‘conversation of the Spirit,’ we have experienced the loving presence of the Lord and discovered the beauty of fraternity.”
“Today we do not see the full fruit of this process, but with farsightedness, we look to the horizon opening up before us. The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and more missionary Church, a Church that adores God and serves the women and men of our time, going forth to bring to everyone the consoling joy of the Gospel,” Francis added.
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
In his homily, Pope Francis said that he believed that the conclusion of this stage in the Synod “it is important to look at the ‘principle and foundation’ from which everything begins ever anew: loving God with our whole life and loving our neighbors as ourselves.”
“Not our strategies, our human calculations, the ways of the world, but love of God and neighbor: that is the heart of everything,” he said.
Pope Francis emphasized that adoration and worship are “essential in the life of the Church.”
Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“To adore God means to acknowledge in faith that he alone is Lord and that our individual lives, the Church’s pilgrim way, and the ultimate outcome of history all depend on the tenderness of his love. He gives meaning to our lives,” he said.
“Those who worship God reject idols because whereas God liberates, idols enslave,” he added.
“We must constantly struggle against all types of idolatry; not only the worldly kinds, which often stem from vainglory, such as lust for success, self-centredness, greed for money — the devil enters through our pockets let us not forget — the enticements of careerism; but also those forms of idolatry disguised as spirituality: my own spirituality, my religious ideas, my pastoral skills.”
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Pope Francis said that being “a worshiping Church and a Church of service” entails “washing the feet of wounded humanity, accompanying those who are frail, weak and cast aside, going out lovingly to encounter the poor.”
Quoting St. John Chrysostom, he said: “The merciful man is as a harbor to those who are in need; and the harbor receives all who are escaping shipwreck, and frees them from danger, whether they be evil or good; whatsoever kind of men they be that are in peril, it receives them into its shelter. You also, when you see a man suffering shipwreck on land through poverty, do not sit in judgment on him, nor require explanations, but relieve his distress.”
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
About 5,000 people attended the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality’s 2023 assembly, according to the Vatican. The Mass concluded with the congregation singing the Marian hymn “Salve Regina.”
Pope Francis thanked all of the cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and lay people from around the world who traveled to Rome to participate in the Synod. Next year, the delegates will return to the Vatican in October 2024 to take part in the second assembly to advise the pope on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.”
“In expressing my gratitude, I would also like to offer a prayer for all of us: may we grow in our worship of God and in our service to our neighbor. Worship and Service. May the Lord accompany us. Let us go forward with joy,” Pope Francis said.
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2 Comments
“By honoring the basilica, one intends to express love and veneration for the Roman Church, which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch affirms, ‘presides over the charity’ of the entire Catholic communion,” Pope Benedict XVI said in 2008″. Some historians refer to a lacuna in this major Church father in recognition of the centrality of Rome within the dioceses of the Church. Having read Ignatius’ letters carefully there are indeed other like allusions.
Nonetheless, many Catholics continue to believe that Saint Peter’s Basilica is the place of the chair of Peter, whereas the Lateran Basilica, the seat of the bishop of Rome is the actual locale. Although the Pope residing at the Vatican adjacent to St Peter’s accents the universal character of the papacy rather than being confined to a Diocese that simply denotes primacy. Perhaps Ignatius has this in mind. Whereas the realization within the universal Church of the authority of the Roman pontiff was clearly defined by later fathers. Today more than ever the vital importance of unity in one baptism one faith has come to fore with the ambiguities of the present pontificate.
“By honoring the basilica, one intends to express love and veneration for the Roman Church, which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch affirms, ‘presides over the charity’ of the entire Catholic communion,” Pope Benedict XVI said in 2008″. Some historians refer to a lacuna in this major Church father in recognition of the centrality of Rome within the dioceses of the Church. Having read Ignatius’ letters carefully there are indeed other like allusions.
Nonetheless, many Catholics continue to believe that Saint Peter’s Basilica is the place of the chair of Peter, whereas the Lateran Basilica, the seat of the bishop of Rome is the actual locale. Although the Pope residing at the Vatican adjacent to St Peter’s accents the universal character of the papacy rather than being confined to a Diocese that simply denotes primacy. Perhaps Ignatius has this in mind. Whereas the realization within the universal Church of the authority of the Roman pontiff was clearly defined by later fathers. Today more than ever the vital importance of unity in one baptism one faith has come to fore with the ambiguities of the present pontificate.
Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist – Pray for us.