This Sunday, the Church celebrates a church—though not just any church.
Situated on the outskirts of ancient Rome along the still-visible Aurelian Walls is the Archbasilica of St John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome.
Dedicated to Christ the Saviour in 324, St John Lateran was later placed under the additional patronage of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. Its formal name is the Papal Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist at the Lateran. (“Lateran” refers to its location on a hill that was formerly the Roman estate of the Laterani family.)
St John Lateran was the site of the pope’s residence for nearly 1,000 years, five of the Church’s ecumenical councils, and the signing of the pivotal 1929 treaty between Italy and the Holy See.
On either side of the central nave stand colossal sculptures of the twelve apostles. The statue of St Matthew shows him with one foot on a fallen bag of coins—almost a stance of rejecting what once gave him status, in favour of something new.
Halfway down the nave is the statue of St Thomas, his finger protruding from the niche and pointing to the altar. The placement is strategic: from one angle, all you see is a finger pointing. On our pilgrim journey there can be moments of doubt and disillusion; and there is St Thomas, with the most famous finger in the Gospels, pointing us in the right direction.