Chiesa di Santa Maria Consolatrice, Roma

Santa Maria Consolatrice is a Catholic parish church in its namesake piazza in Casal Bertone, within Rome’s Tiburtino area. Notice the sequence of arches across the facade, an echo of the early Christian basilicas that inspired its design. Built on the district’s hillside during nineteen forty-two through nineteen forty-five, the church suffered repeated damage from Allied air raids as work continued.

On July fourteenth, nineteen forty-five, an image of Mary the Consoler—copied from the revered original in Turin—arrived here in procession from a nearby chapel, and the new church received its blessing that day. Since nineteen seventy-five it has held the rank of a cardinal’s titular church. Joseph Ratzinger held that title from nineteen seventy-seven until nineteen ninety-three, before becoming Pope Benedict the Sixteenth; he retained close links with this parish and chose it for his initial parish visit as pope.