My Friends in the Lord Jesus,

A Catholic Church trivia question, “What is the name of the Pope’s cathedral?” (Hint: it is not St. Peter’s.) All bishops have a cathedral as the “mother church” of their diocese. Our diocese has St. Paul’s Cathedral, from which Bishop McManus presides, teaches and governs the Diocese of Worcester. The Pope, who is Bishop of Rome, has a cathedral too. It is St. John Lateran in Rome. St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. Every year on November 9th the universal Church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica. November 9th is this Monday.

The land on which St. John Lateran is built belonged originally to the wealthy Lateran family. Emperor Constantine received the land from the Lateran family. The land was used for the building of this cathedral, which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. Hence the name, St. John built on Lateran land, St. John Lateran.

St. John Lateran is our oldest church. It was in St. John Lateran that Popes were consecrated and had lived until the 14th century. The papal residence and St. John Lateran, to which the papal residence was connected, had suffered fire, earthquakes and ruin. But it survived and has become a symbol of the many trials of Christianity itself. In 1646 Pope Innocent rebuilt the present structure. Tradition tells us that beneath its high altar are the remains of a small wooden table on which St. Peter celebrated Mass.

Popes began to live at the Vatican about the year 1377. St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, which we most commonly associate with the Pope, was begun 1506 and completed in 1626. This is where St. Peter is buried. Our present Pope, Pope Francis, lives in a residence in Vatican City called Casa Santa Marta.

What is the significance of celebrating the Cathedral / Basilica of St. John Lateran today? Just as a cathedral is the center of a diocese, uniting all of the parishes, so this cathedral, the Pope’s cathedral, the cathedral of Rome, unites all dioceses, all Catholics, around the world. It is the symbol of Catholic unity. One universal Church consisting of many churches, united as one, manifested as the Catholic Church.

Every church building, although sacred in itself, reminds us that we, the people, are the Church of Christ, living stones, a spiritual edifice unto God. So we pray: “O God, who were pleased to call your Church the Bride, grant that the people that serves your name may revere you, love you and follow you, and may be led by you to attain your promises in heaven…Year by year you sanctify the Church, the Bride of Christ, foreshadowed in visible buildings, so that, rejoicing as the mother of countless children, she may be given her place in your heavenly glory.”

Fr. Ron