Hierarchy of Buildings

The Catholic Church not only ranks its members in a hierarchy, but its buildings too. Not every large and impressive church is a cathedral, and not every small local church you attend Mass at may be a parish.

Starting at the top, the single most important church is ... not St. Peter's, as you may have expected. It is instead St. John Lateran, or, to use its full name and title, the Major Papal, Patriarchal, and Roman Archbasilica, Metropolitan and Primatial Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in Lateran, Mother and Head of All Churches in Rome and in the World. What makes St. John Lateran the most important is that it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. As noted in the previous articles, there is only one bishop for each diocese, and there is (typically) only one cathedral per diocese, the personal church of the bishop, which houses his throne, known as the cathedra. Within each diocese, the cathedral of that diocese's bishop is the highest-ranking church.

After the Cathedrals, the Major Basilicas come next in ranking, with St. John Lateran being one of the four Major Basilicas, along with the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, and the Basilica of St. Mary the Great (Mary Major). After the Major Basilicas come the Papal Minor Basilicas (3 total), then the Pontifical Minor Basilicas (6 total), and then Patriarchal Minor Basilicas (2 total). After that come regular Minor Basilicas, of which there are currently 1,924 in the world. Phoenix is home to one of these Minor Basilicas: the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (St. Mary's Basilica). Basilicas are granted this status only by the Pope, with two items always kept on display in the Basilica in recognition of this special connection and used when he visits: the umbraculum, a large red and yellow umbrella, and the tintinnabulum, a bell mounted on a pole.

After Basilicas come National Shrines. This recognition is bestowed more locally by the bishops of a country recognizing a church's special cultural, historical, or religious significance. There are currently 241 Shrines in the world, some of which are Basilicas as well.

Then finally, we get to parishes, which are most common and you would be most used to. A parish is a church responsible for a specific geographic territory and/or population of a diocese. After parishes come Missions and Chapels. They are designed to minister to a specific population that is distinct from the surrounding parish community, or that is far remote from any nearby settlement. Examples of this are Newman Centers, which are often organized as chapels, or missions on the reservations.

Once again, there are many small exceptions to these rules, and a whole set of differences from the parish level down for churches belonging to the Religious Orders or Eastern Churches.