A Feast for a Building?
November 9, 2025 at 10:40 a.m.
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
This Sunday might be a feast you’ve never heard of before. The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. So it’s a feast…for a building? Sounds kind of…random? I get that we have feasts of Saints, or feasts related to events in the life of Jesus like the Ascension, but why a building? Well, it’s not quite about the building. It’s more about…well, a chair in the building. And no, this isn’t some special chair that Jesus sat on that’s kept in a glass case behind a red velvet rope. Let’s back up a little.
Jesus made St. Peter the first Pope (the leader of the Apostles, who were our first Bishops), and he died in Rome. His successor St. Linus was the next Bishop of Rome, and so on throughout the centuries all the way to Pope Leo XIV today. Every Bishop around the world has a symbolic chair called a Cathedra, which represents his teaching and governing authority in his Diocese, and that’s actually where the word Cathedral comes from. It has nothing to do with a fancy style of architecture, a Church is called a Cathedral when the Bishop’s chair is in it, which makes it the “Headquarters” Church in the Diocese. The Bishop of Rome’s Cathedra chair is in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome (which is named for St. John the Baptist and St. John from the 12 Apostles, and it’s on the Lateran hill – so there’s no saint up in heaven named Johnny Lateran, patron saint of ladder safety, if that’s what you thought). But what about St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, isn’t’ that the Pope’s HQ? Sort of, but technically the Cathedra is in St. John Lateran so it’s actually the Archbasilica while St. Peter’s is just a regular old major Basilica. I know, that’s more than you ever wanted to know.
So why have a feast day for the Lateran Basilica? Is the Church trying to give it a tourism bump since everybody is more focused on St. Peter’s? No. It’s to remind us that all the Catholics around the world are united to the Bishop of Rome who is the first among all the Bishops, our Pope. Jesus gave us the Pope and the Bishops the Teaching Authority of the Church to lead us and guide us into the future. When some sort of new moral issue comes up, we don’t have to speculate about where the Holy Spirit would lead us, especially when the Pope teaches “ex cathedra” or “from the chair” that we talked about. We can be confident that it’s the Holy Spirit preserving the Pope and the Church from teaching in error in matters of faith and morals.
Especially in our modern world with all of the technological advances happening all around us, there are probably plenty of moral and ethical questions on the horizon that haven’t even been dreamt up yet. The answers of course will likely not be explicitly found in the pages of the Bible or the writings of the saints, so where do we turn? If we turn to the teaching authority of the Church, we may find ourselves spared some heartache along the way, while the rest of the world may reach the same conclusion only after a few decades of trial and error and even devastation.
So this week be thankful that you’re part of a Church that’s bigger than just your local congregation. Be grateful that your Church was founded by Jesus and that He gave the keys to St. Peter our first Pope. Be grateful that the Church leads and guides us. And if you get the chance to make a pilgrimage to Rome at some point in your life, certainly check out St. Peter’s Basilica, but take a trip over to St. John Lateran as well, which we call the “mother of all Churches!”
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Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
This Sunday might be a feast you’ve never heard of before. The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. So it’s a feast…for a building? Sounds kind of…random? I get that we have feasts of Saints, or feasts related to events in the life of Jesus like the Ascension, but why a building? Well, it’s not quite about the building. It’s more about…well, a chair in the building. And no, this isn’t some special chair that Jesus sat on that’s kept in a glass case behind a red velvet rope. Let’s back up a little.
Jesus made St. Peter the first Pope (the leader of the Apostles, who were our first Bishops), and he died in Rome. His successor St. Linus was the next Bishop of Rome, and so on throughout the centuries all the way to Pope Leo XIV today. Every Bishop around the world has a symbolic chair called a Cathedra, which represents his teaching and governing authority in his Diocese, and that’s actually where the word Cathedral comes from. It has nothing to do with a fancy style of architecture, a Church is called a Cathedral when the Bishop’s chair is in it, which makes it the “Headquarters” Church in the Diocese. The Bishop of Rome’s Cathedra chair is in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome (which is named for St. John the Baptist and St. John from the 12 Apostles, and it’s on the Lateran hill – so there’s no saint up in heaven named Johnny Lateran, patron saint of ladder safety, if that’s what you thought). But what about St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, isn’t’ that the Pope’s HQ? Sort of, but technically the Cathedra is in St. John Lateran so it’s actually the Archbasilica while St. Peter’s is just a regular old major Basilica. I know, that’s more than you ever wanted to know.
So why have a feast day for the Lateran Basilica? Is the Church trying to give it a tourism bump since everybody is more focused on St. Peter’s? No. It’s to remind us that all the Catholics around the world are united to the Bishop of Rome who is the first among all the Bishops, our Pope. Jesus gave us the Pope and the Bishops the Teaching Authority of the Church to lead us and guide us into the future. When some sort of new moral issue comes up, we don’t have to speculate about where the Holy Spirit would lead us, especially when the Pope teaches “ex cathedra” or “from the chair” that we talked about. We can be confident that it’s the Holy Spirit preserving the Pope and the Church from teaching in error in matters of faith and morals.
Especially in our modern world with all of the technological advances happening all around us, there are probably plenty of moral and ethical questions on the horizon that haven’t even been dreamt up yet. The answers of course will likely not be explicitly found in the pages of the Bible or the writings of the saints, so where do we turn? If we turn to the teaching authority of the Church, we may find ourselves spared some heartache along the way, while the rest of the world may reach the same conclusion only after a few decades of trial and error and even devastation.
So this week be thankful that you’re part of a Church that’s bigger than just your local congregation. Be grateful that your Church was founded by Jesus and that He gave the keys to St. Peter our first Pope. Be grateful that the Church leads and guides us. And if you get the chance to make a pilgrimage to Rome at some point in your life, certainly check out St. Peter’s Basilica, but take a trip over to St. John Lateran as well, which we call the “mother of all Churches!”