As Peter preached the first sermon on Pentecost, he could hardly have imagined that he was shaping a Catholicism—a new way of life in Christ for all people—that would become Roman. There was nothing Roman about Jesus’ life until His saving death. The cross, Christianity’s central symbol, was a Roman execution device.
But the fact that Rome supplied the cross that redeemed mankind is not the cause of Catholics’ intense veneration of the city, which began just a few decades after Peter’s first sermon.
It comes, rather, from Peter himself, the rock of the Church, whose martyrdom and subsequent burial in Rome sanctified the city and who became the draw of pilgrims for centuries on end. His physical presence beneath the basilica named in his honor emits a holy aura, generates a religious fascination, and inspires a pious hope. To this man, and this man alone, the Son of God gave the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. If we seek him and ask humbly, perhaps he will help us gain admittance to that kingdom.
read more on CWR