500th anniversary of St. Peter's basilica

Vatican, Apr. 18 (CWNews.com) - St. Peter's basilica, the largest and most important church in the Catholic world, marks its 500th anniversary today: April 18.

Despite it is the center of liturgical life at the Vatican, St. Peter's is not a cathedral; the cathedral of the Rome diocese is the basilica of St. John Lateran. But St. Peter's holds pre-eminent place because it is built on the tomb of St. Peter, at the site where the first Pontiff's martyrdom.

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