Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-16
The Real First Church Of Rome Is Not
Beautiful St. Peters,, but old St. Johns
Laterun, to Which Pins XII NH Be DrIven
in 7r1umphal Procession First Pontif
to LeaUe the Vatican Since 1870

IF the stones Of Rome could speak, they
would be heard the thunders of ap-
plause that will greet Pope Plus on this st.
Johns day of 1929 he emerges from the
Vatican and passes along the streets OF the
Eternal City to the Lateran basilica.
If the guns of the Tower Of Hadrian salute
him, If the Bridge of st. Angelo shakes under
the acclaim of gathered crowds, If the Corso
rocks, the voices of the walls and pavements
OF old papal Rome will be still louder.
But it is the centuries-old, weather-beaten
travertine marbles Of the ancient Church Of st.
John Lateran itself that will be most eloquent
as the pontif enters its doors. In all The
world there is no place where the spirits of the
past, the ghosts of history, throng more i'm
perially, more dramatically to tell the story Of
ancient glories and old-time tragedies than in
this edifce. ST. Peters is young and new be-
side it. What st. Peters has known and seen
makes, as it were, merely childs tale to what
the walls and foundations of the Church of
ST. John Lateran have witnessed.
When Plus XXI passes through the portals OF
ST. Johns, he will enter into the past Of 1000
years of history making. He will set foot on
floors that were paved for the tread of pa
trician feet in pagan times, he will walk where
Roman consuls and Roman emperors have
walked, where barbarian chieftainS have Tod
ravaging the capital of the world; where
Caedwalla, the Anglo-Saxon King, was bap-
tized; where Gregory the Great the Apostle
OF Christian England" pondered his historic
antiphonary which became the basis of church
music for all time-the same Gregory who.
seeing a group of blue-eyed, haxon- haired
hostages exposed in the Roman slave market,
exclaimed, "These are not Angles but angels
and forthwith devoted himself to the con-
version of Britain.
The Pope viii kneel where Francis Of Assist
knelt, where Francis and Dominic embraced,
where Laurence O'Toole of Dublin, Stephen Of
Hungary, David Beaton of Scottish ST. An
drews, Winfred of England and Ignatius Of
Loyola prayed.
The tombs, alone, whose silences will salute
the Pope as he comes back to the sanctuary of
his predecessors, could tell story that would
fill volume. The dust of a dozen or more
Popes, dating back nearly 1000 years, reposes
here Even the heads of Peter and Paul, first
bishop and first Christian missionary, are here
enshrined
The stones cannot speak. But IL the inagi-
nation of the people who come to the porticos
of ST. Johns on this day and crowd the inner
spaces of the baSilica are quick and alert, they
may vision procession Of emperors and kings,
saints and sinners pontins and martyrs, as
no other single ediflce in the world may con-
jure up out of the pages of its chronicle. Fire
and blood, martyrdoms and heroisns are writ
ten on every block of marble in this old, old
church.
It is not sufficient to speak of st. Johns
merely as st. Johns if one is to catch the full
import Of its story. Specifically. it is st. John