If it is true that all the Churches trace their origins to one apostle, then the fact remains that the only one proven to continue that succession is the Church of Rome.

The value of this apostolic succession lies in the nature of the miracle it confers on the phenomenon of the Church itself. And in the Church’s historical dimension, the greatest miracle of all is its constructive relilience throughout the centuries, precisely in the expression of the ideal and in the structures of experience and organization, all of which seem to be (and usually are) contingent. This miracle constitutes the fact that the message of Jesus has taken root in the fiber of history: “In all truth I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death” (Jn 8:51). These are the words which scandalized the Pharisees who were debating with Jesus, and which caused them to be accused of being possessed by a demon. In fact, no man may draw away from the precarious nature of life and when a value emerges, and if it becomes permanently embedded in time, it can only be said to be the bearer of the divine meaning of things. Even in the most ordinary aspects of our lives we believe it is a miracle if a sentiment, a bond, a conviction lasts our whole life through, if anything bound up with time manages to endure.

Monsignor Luigi Giussani (d. 2005), on the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.