November 9, 2021
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As a kid growing up in Chicago, I had access to many cultural advantages. Many do not know this, but Chicago was considered the City of Museums. There was the NAdler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Art Institute of Chicago, but by far the one that I always enjoyed the most was the Natural History Museum. It seemed that whenever I visited that museum, I learned something new and exciting. A rainy day in Chicago became an adventure into history. Perhaps that is why I felt so privileged to have had the opportunity to study and live as a priest in Rome for four years. In Rome, every building and cobblestone seemed to ooze history or art. A simple walk created discoveries that fascinated my imagination, as ancient Rome was side-by-side with medieval and modern Rome.
In my first week as a new student in Rome, I was walking with a professor from the Angelicum, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. It was a simple neighborhood stroll. The professor pointed out to me a bell tower near the place of my residence, and he said to me, you know that bell tower was constructed 200 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We Americans sometimes think of something that is 100 years old as old! It emphasized to me how young we are as a nation and how much we must learn from the nations and cultures that have preceded us.
What was even more fascinating about Rome was that it is two capitals. It is the Capital of Italy itself, a new unified nation, and the Capital of Christendom. Although Jerusalem does lay claim to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, it is Rome that possessed the lives and death of Saints Peter and Paul. It was from Rome that the world was evangelized for Christ. Traveling the city, one immediately sees the marks of Catholicism in the multitude of churches, tombs, and shrines.
There are four familiar major basilicas in Rome, with altars reserved for the use of the Pope. Each of these churches possess their own particular spiritual beauty. St Peter’s Basilica is the Mother Church of Catholicism and one can spend weeks examining the artistic presentations and the saintly history. I was in awe every time I entered St. Peter’s. The Basilica of St. Mary Major is what I refer to as a jewel box, befitting the dedication to the Mother of God. St. Paul Outside the Walls is where St. Paul was beheaded and is the second largest Church in the world. It has a spirit of monasticism that reinforces the simple spiritual environment that captures its religious beauty.
But today, Nov. 9th we celebrate the feast of the dedication of The Basilica of St. John Lateran. The Lateran Basilica is the cathedral church of Rome, and it is the mother church of all the churches of Rome, and the world. It is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Its dedication goes back to 324 AD. The present-day John Lateran is an artistic gem. One of the most impressive aspects of this basilica for me is the niches occupied by statues of the Apostles. They are gigantic. I would walk the main aisle of the Church feeling dwarfed by these figures of Christianity’s founding. But then I began to realize that they were all very inconsequential men; there was nothing exceptional about them. In all probability they should have been long forgotten, but here we are holding them in exaltation. It is nothing about them that made them special except for their relationship to Christ, which elevated them above the assessment of men. They possessed Christ for the world.
We have that same potential to allow Christ to reign in us so that we might become the new giants of the faith, because as St. Paul states in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.”
The pathway to sanctity has been established for us – it’s Jesus’ command to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Sincerely,
Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
