St John’s Basilica in the Lateran is called the “Mother church of Christendom” . It is an archbasillica, out ranking the other three Roman Basilicas of St Peter, St Paul on the via Ostia and St Mary Major. This might surprise many people: surely St Peter’s, built as it is over the tomb of the great Apostle and now the place where the Pope lives, surely this ranks as more important? But no!
The year 313 is important in Christian history. It is the year when the Emperor of the West, Constantine, delivered a great victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, and although still a pagan, he attributed this success to the God of the Christians (Constantine’s mother, Helena, was already a Christian). As a result of this victory, Constantine enroled Christianity as one of the religions of the Roman Empire, and most of the terrible persecutions which had afflicted early Christianity stopped.
Constantine, also gave to the Bishop of Rome and his successors a splendid palace on the Lateran hill, and also had built the great Basilica of the Holy Redeemer, later called St John’s , as the Pope’s own church. It is here, not St Peter’s, that the Pope has his seat of office or his Cathedra.
The Basilica was dedicated by Pope Sylvester 1 upon it’s completion in the year 324. St John’s Basilica is the seat of the Bishop of Rome, and a powerful symbol of our quest for unity under the successor of Peter. May our unity deepen and embrace new people as God wills it.