In current Catholic usage, basilica has split away from its architectural meaning to become a canonical rank the pope grants to a church of particular devotional, historical or artistic importance, entirely independent of whether the building actually follows the ancient basilica floor plan. The Holy See distinguishes a basilica major, a category held today by only four churches, all in Rome, from the far larger number of basilica minor churches distributed worldwide.
A basilica minor might be a modest parish church that happens to house a significant relic or shrine, granted the title in recognition of its pilgrimage importance rather than its architecture, and it receives specific liturgical privileges along with the designation, including the right to display a distinctive umbrella-like canopy called the ombrellino and a bell called the tintinnabulum in processions. This administrative sense of the word coexists, sometimes confusingly, with its purely descriptive architectural sense: a building can be a basilica in floor plan without holding basilica status, and a building can hold basilica status while following an entirely different plan, whether Gothic, Baroque or modern. The title, in effect, marks significance rather than shape.