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Feast of Consecration of St. John Lateran Jn 2/13-22 |
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| Background: St. John
Lateran’s is the Cathedral church of all the world, the Pope’s home church. Not
the Vatican. Though the latter is where the Pope lives these days and where most of the
big ceremonies are there, for most of Catholic history the
Pope lived in the Lateran Palace the conclaves took place there. The Cardinals
(then really the parish priests of Rome) would choose one of themselves to be the next
bishop and would bring him out on the balcony to get the seal of approval (or disapproval)
from the lay people of Rome. Today we celebrate the main parish church of Christianity and
our own parish churches. |
read the padre |
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Story: One upon a time
there was this lovely old parish church which the people “downtown” decided to
close it and tear it down. It would cost more money to insure the church and maintain it
then it brought in from its collections. Tough
decision, but necessary. The neighborhood was almost abandoned and few people came to the
Church for Mass. Downtown had closed the school several years ago. Many of the people who
had grown up in the parish and had raised their children their were furious. Why tear down
such a lovely place. So they had a meeting. One of the men at the meeting brought along a
map showing the rapid transit and bus routes through the neighborhood and the projected
population movements. In ten years, maybe five, he said. They’ll wish they had this
church and school. So they established a foundation and put enough money into it to insure
and maintain the church and the school for five years. Downtown still wanted to tear it
down, but they didn’t dare.
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