Cardinal Burke to offer Latin Mass in Vatican for annual pilgrimage
Cardinal Burke's October 25 Mass marks the return of a once annual custom which was banned in recent years.
VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke will offer a historic traditional Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica this October, after Pope Leo XIV granted permission for the return of a pilgrimage custom which was prohibited in recent years.
On Saturday October 25, Cdl. Burke will offer a Pontifical Mass at the Altar of the Chair – under the famous Holy Spirit window – in the Vatican.
The Mass forms part of the 3-day Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage, which sees devotees of the traditional Latin Mass gather in Rome on the final weekend of October.
The cardinal’s presence is notable, as it will be the first time he has officially offered a liturgy for the pilgrimage since 2020.
But more crucially, this year sees the return of the traditional Mass inside the Vatican for the pilgrimage. In both 2024 and 2023 this practice was prohibited by the authorities, during the reign of Pope Francis and with the Vatican under the charge of Cardinal Mauro Gambetti as archpriest.
Gambetti still remains as archpriest of the papal basilica, but it appears that Pope Leo XIV has made a direct intervention in order to permit the Mass on this occasion, after the disappointments of recent years.
Oxford academic and liturgical historian Dr. Joseph Shaw warmly welcomed the move. Shaw – president of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV), a member organization of the pilgrimage’s overarching organizing body known as the Coetus internationalis Summorum Pontificum (CISP) – stated:
We are grateful to Pope Leo for his pastoral response to the request for a Traditional Mass in St Peter’s. This celebration symbolises the unity with the Holy Father so desired by Catholics attached to the ancient rite of Mass.
The FIUV suggested that this move was “the first concrete indication of the attitude of Pope Leo XIV to the Traditional Mass, the Vetus Ordo or 1962 Missal.”
“The joy of peace while giving thanks for this return, thanks to Heaven and Pope Leo, to our holy spiritual and liturgical habits,” commented Christian Marquant – of the CISP – about the return of the Vatican Mass into the pilgrimage calendar.
The traditional Latin Mass infamously came under increased and heavy restrictions under Pope Francis and Cardinal Arthur Roche, in the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. “In the latter years of Pope Francis, the official view was that this form of the Mass, while not completely prohibited, should not be ‘promoted’ or given prominence, with high-profile celebrants in important churches,” Shaw wrote.
Shortly after Cdl. Gambetti began his new role as archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica in 2021, private traditional Masses were nearly banned in the basilica, and priests ordered to concelebrate Novus Ordo Masses rather than say such liturgies privately. The restrictions came from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, though some speculated if Gambetti was ultimately behind the move.
In late June 2021, the cardinal also issued restrictions on the use of Latin in Masses in the Papal Basilica, widely stipulating Italian for the liturgy.
Following the specific removal of permission for the Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage Mass, in 2024 Cardinal Gerhard Müller offered Eucharistic Benediction inside the basilica, while in 2023 the office of Sext was prayed at the same altar.
However, aside from the pilgrimage, the traditional Mass does officially continue daily in the Basilica in the small side chapels found in the Crypt, and is attended by devoted regulars and visiting pilgrims.
This 2025 pilgrimage thus is not the return of the traditional Mass to the Vatican after years of total absence, but rather the return of this much publicized and very prominent celebration of the traditional Mass for the annual pilgrimage.
Some have posited that the timing of this announcement is to distract from the scandal of the LGBT pilgrimage to the Vatican this past Saturday, which saw LGBT activists promote blasphemous messages inside the basilica.
However, Cdl. Burke’s participation in the pilgrimage was arranged earlier in the year and already somewhat publicized by Catholic media such as Messa in Latino and Paix Liturgique. This formal announcement solidifies his participation, but permission for the Mass itself may have come as a result of the cardinal’s recent papal audience.
On August 22, Leo XIV received the American cardinal in private audience at the Vatican. The details of their encounter remain private, as is customary for such meetings.
But Cdl. Burke publicly revealed in June that he had already taken the opportunity to speak to the new Pope about the future of the traditional Mass. With the American cardinal being a prominent champion of the traditional liturgy, it seems likely that he has been using his presence in Rome to continue that cause.
Speaking about the question during a wide-ranging interview with Per Mariam in January, Burke lamented the restrictions on the traditional Mass as a “persecution.”
“This is a cause of great suffering,” he said. “It’s not just. We must pray that Our Lord will intervene to put an end to this persecution of devout Catholics who simply are spiritually nourished by the more ancient form of the Roman Rite.
EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Burke on Latin Mass ‘persecution’ & need for ‘profound reform’ in Church
VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Referencing the “persecution” of the Latin Mass and the “pervasive confusion, division and even error in the Church,” Raymond Cardinal Burke told Per Mariam that the Church needs a “profound reform” in the style of “a conversion to Christ.”
“So we really need a profound reform in the Church, and that reform is a conversion to Christ, who alone is our salvation as He comes to us in this Holy Church,” the cardinal added.
The Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage draws a large, international crowd and is heavily populated by young people and growing families.
Ruben Pereto Rivas, director of the International Center for Liturgical Studies, last year told this correspondent about the importance of gathering inside the Basilica of St. Peter, where the apostle “gave his testimony of the divinity of Our Lord, and at the place where the Chair of Peter is.”
Rivas added that, for those who come to Rome for the international traditional pilgrimage, “it is a very, very good occasion to show and to live our faith in the Catholic Church through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.”
This year will see likely well over 1,000 pilgrims descend on Rome for the 3-day event.
The 2025 pilgrimage will welcome Cardinal Matteo Zuppi who will offer Pontifical Vespers on Friday, October 25 at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina. Zuppi has joined the pilgrimage before for Pontifical Vespers in 2022.
Then pilgrims will gather outside the Basilica of Santi Celso e Giuliano – run by the Latin Mass priestly society Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest – at noon, before processing into the Vatican for Cdl. Burke’s Mass which begins at 3 p.m.
Sunday is the traditional feast of Christ the King and will see pilgrims gather for the closing Mass at any of three churches in Rome where the traditional Mass is offered on a regular basis.
Full details of the pilgrimage and pre-pilgrimage conference can be found online.
Will he have the dubia with him?
As a resident of North Carolina, where our ability to attend a Latin Mass is currently threatened by our Bishop, Michael Martin, I hope this is an indication that the value and beauty of the Latin Mass will be celebrated, literally and figuratively, throughout the Catholic Church in the US.