From the altar of the Ara Caeli [on top of the Capitol], spiritual and political center of ancient Rome, the mysterious and at the same time glorious procession, moving around the edges of the Capitol, arrived here, in front of the Colosseum; and here it stops, as a majestic symbol of the triumph of Christ and of his Church, under the arch of Constantine, before another altar, mobile if you wish, as the tents in the desert signing the passage of human and divine conquests, but an affirmation of the memories of the past, impressed upon the currentness of the present. O, noble and glorious edict of Constantine, proclaiming throughout the centuries the freedom of the Church of Christ; o, voices of the human generations who passed here, celebrating under this arch the perennial hymn of the Christian faith of all ages.
John XXIII
June 16, 1960
[Tip: Cantuale Antonianum, cf. sidebar]
