Traditional Latin Mass celebrated at St Peter’s Basilica

The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV had authorised the cardinal to celebrate the pre-Vatican II liturgy on October 25 with people attending the annual Ad Petri Sedem Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome. The Mass was celebrated at the Altar of the Chair in the basilica.

Summorum Pontificum was Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 document that expanded access to the old liturgy, giving priests discretion over whether to celebrate it and asserting that the faithful had a right to ask for it.

But citing concerns about Church unity and about a lack of acceptance of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes in 2021, which significantly limited celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass using the 1962 Roman Missal.

Still, the Ad Petri Sedem Summorum Pontificum pilgrimages in October 2021 and 2022 – after Traditionis Custodes – were allowed to have the old Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

In 2023 and 2024, the pilgrimage was not able to receive authorisation to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica from the basilica’s liturgy office, according to organiser Christian Marquant, the Catholic News Agency reported.

The Office of Liturgical Ceremonies of St Peter’s Basilica and the director of the Holy See Press Office did not respond to CNA’s request for comment on this assertion.

Cardinal Burke met Pope Leo in a private audience on August 22.

The Mass on October 25 was preceded by a procession from the Basilica of Sts Celso and Giuliano to St Peter’s Basilica.

FULL STORY

Cardinal Burke celebrates traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica (By Cindy Wooden/Catholic News Service)

Latin Mass celebrated in St Peter’s Basilica (CNA)