Basilicas in the Catholic Church
church building of the Catholic Church specially designated by the pope
Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular building with a central nave flanked by two or more longitudinal aisles). Basilicas are either major basilicas, of which there are four, all in the Diocese of Rome, or minor basilicas, of which there were 1,924 worldwide as of 2023.
Numerous basilicas are notable shrines, often receiving pilgrimages, especially among the many that were built above a confessio or the burial place of a martyr; although this term now usually designates a space before the high altar that is sunk lower than the main floor level (as in the case in St. Peter's and St. John Lateran in Rome) and that offer more immediate access to the burial places below. Some basilicas are Christian pilgrimage sites, receiving tens of millions of visitors per year.
Churches designated as papal basilicas, in particular, possess a papal throne and a papal high altar, at which no one may celebrate Mass without the pope's permission.
Ranking of churches
The papal or major basilicas outrank in precedence all other churches.
The public source identifies “Basilicas in the Catholic Church” as church building of the Catholic Church specially designated by the pope. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Basilicas, Catholic and Church.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4846867. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2023.
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This entry incorporates text from “Basilicas in the Catholic Church” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.