Lateran Basilica in Rome

 In Living the Liturgy

November 9 is the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. It is known as the oldest and highest ranking of the four major Basilicas in Rome. It is also called the Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran or the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran. It is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, the Official Ecclesiastical seat of the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome (not Saint Peter’s Basilica as so many mistakenly believe)The feast honors the Archbasilica as the Ecclesiastical Mother Church. It was the principal residence of the Popes, beginning of the fourth century, in the reign of Constantine, and continued so for about a thousand years.  

 November 12, 1978 was when Saint Pope John Paul II celebrated the Rite of Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome. He said in his homily, “I wish to kneel down in this place and kiss the threshold of this temple, which has been for so many centuries “the dwelling of God with men” (Rev 21:3): God the Saviour with the People of the Eternal City, Rome. This Basilica, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist as well as to Saint John the Evangelist, is rightly consecrated to the Most Holy Saviour. It is right, therefore, that Peter’s Successors should come to this place to receive, as Peter once received it, the confession of John: “Behold, the Lamb of God”, and transfer it to the new age of the Church, proclaiming: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. The ancient generations came up to this place: generations of Romans, generations of bishops of Rome, successors of Saint Peter, and they sang this hymn of joy, which I repeat today with you in the words of the psalm: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem, built as a city which is bound firmly together, in which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord” (Ps 122/121).   

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