In our seminary days, many of my classmates had similar memories about today’s feast. When we first heard of “St. John Lateran,” we wondered who he was and why he had such an important day. Eventually, we learned that there was no one by that name. The St. John, in this case, refers to both St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. The Lateran refers to a section in the city of Rome where there is a major basilica dedicated to both of those great saints who share the name John. The site of the Lateran Basilica was originally the palace of the Laterani family. They were a very influential family in pagan Rome until the emperor Nero accused one of their members of conspiracy and confiscated the palace. The buildings eventually came under the control of the emperor Constantine. When he converted to Christianity, he gave the palace to the Church. In 324, Pope St. Sylvester I dedicated it as the Cathedral of Rome under the patronage of Christ Our Savior.
Of course, a building that is almost 1700 years old must have gone through extensive renovation, and it has been rededicated twice. At those points, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist have been added as co-patrons. The Lateran Basilica remained as the residence of the Pope until the fourteenth century, when Pope Clement V moved the seat of the papacy to Avignon, France. When the papacy returned to Rome later in the fourteenth century, the Lateran Basilica was no longer the papal residence. But it is still the Cathedral church of Rome and is thus “the Pope’s Church,” and it is the seat not only of the Diocese of Rome but of all the Church throughout the world. As we are in communion with the Holy Father, so the Lateran Basilica becomes a sign of our unity in Christ. That is why this feast is important enough even to displace the regular Sunday readings and prayers. This church’s importance can be summed up by the words engraved on the main door of the Basilica, in Latin, Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput. In English, that would be, “Most Holy Lateran Church, of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and the head.”
Today’s feast is important even to those of us who have never been to Rome and have never seen the Lateran Basilica. For the Eucharist that Pope Francis celebrates at the altar of the Lateran Basilica is the same Body and Blood of Christ that I celebrate at the altar at St. Malachy. We are united, not by a common setting but by the Person of Jesus Christ, in the sacraments.
As we honor the Pope’s Cathedral in today’s feast, we also pray that we will see ourselves as part of a larger reality, the Church that unites us with all the Faithful, including the saints in heaven and all our departed sisters and brothers in Purgatory. May we come to see that unity most clearly in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Father H
