Basilica Bucket List with Grady Connolly
Basilicas are churches in the Catholic Church that receive the honorific title by the pope. There are four major basilicas in Rome and the others worldwide are minor basilicas. Grady Connolly, founder of Social Thomist, joins this episode of On Mission with Chris Pierno and Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. to share his experiences taking pilgrimages around the United States to visit all 93 minor basilicas.
The Romans used basilicas as a gathering place and the seat of the local ruling official. After Christianity was legalized, the early Christians gathered in the basilicas for Mass and Sacraments. Today, the Pope is responsible for declaring a church a basilica, which distinguishes the church from others as a particular place of pilgrimage, sacraments, and liturgical beauty. Grady Connolly has visited over 60 of the basilicas in the US and plans to visit all of the basilicas and document his findings in an upcoming book.
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