Does the Pope live at the Lateran Palace?
Does the Pope live at the Lateran Palace? Before they built the Vatican Palace, the main residence for Popes was at the Lateran Palace. It wasn't until the fifth century when Pope Symmachus commissioned two new buildings close to the Old St. Peter's Basilica that it changed.
Why is Lateran Basilica important?
St. John Lateran is the most important of them all, because it is the home of the bishop of Rome, the Pope. Pope Francis lives in Vatican City, and performs mass more often at Saint Peter's Basilica than at the other papal basilicas, but St. John Lateran is the Pope's church in Rome.