Vatican City, Sep 9, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Cardinal Raymond Burke will celebrate a special Traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 25 in a return to a prior custom, suspended since 2022, of an annual pilgrimage of Catholics devoted to the Latin Mass.
Burke will celebrate the Solemn Pontifical Mass, a high Latin Mass said by a bishop, at the Altar of the Chair on the second day of the Oct. 24–26 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, the event’s official website says. The cardinal also celebrated a Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair for the pilgrimage in 2014.
In 2023 and 2024, the pilgrimage was not able to receive authorization to celebrate the Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica from the basilica’s liturgy office, according to organizer Christian Marquant.
The Office of Liturgical Ceremonies of St. Peter’s Basilica and the director of the Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to CNA’s request for comment on this assertion.
The Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, in its 14th year, brings people “ad Petri Sedem” (“to the See of Peter”) to give “testimony of the attachment that binds numerous faithful throughout the whole world to the traditional liturgy,” according to the pilgrimage website.
Burke, a champion of the Traditional Latin Mass and one of the most prominent critics in the hierarchy of the late Pope Francis, under whom he fell conspicuously out of favor, met Pope Leo in a private audience on Aug. 22.
Leo sent a letter of congratulations for Burke’s 50th anniversary of priestly ministry in July.
Rorate Caeli, a prominent website for devotees of the Traditional Latin Mass, called the celebration of a Solemn Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica again an “important sign” of increased tolerance for the traditional liturgy. Pope Francis severely restricted the use of the Latin Mass in 2021 and with subsequent legislation.
The Mass on Oct. 25 will be preceded by a half-mile procession from the Basilica of Sts. Celso and Giuliano to St. Peter’s Basilica.
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These small blessings bring gratitude for the opportunity to celebrate the Latin Mass once again at St. Peter’s. However, it is disheartening that such a thing should be viewed as an event for which we must feel so grateful — a return to a tradition upheld for nearly 1800 years.
Michael, you forget that tradition now means whatever has been believed and practiced only for the last 50 years.
Michael, you forget that tradition now means whatever has been believed and practiced only for the last 50 years.
This permission should not have been granted. The aim ought to be to completely phase out the use of the preconciliar liturgy, not to prolong its use and certainly not to encourage its growth.
The Roman Church is liturgically and ecclesiologically incoherent in its practice.
Ergo, Seabass, also sprach Zarathustra.
Pronouncing such judgment on the church, you make yourself a heathen and a slave like Onesimus, thinking you know more than the Church by defrauding your Christian master. May you find yourself an apostle like Paul. He can reset your thoughts to True.
The Church is universal & catholic, within which there are many Rites & liturgies.
It’s all good.
This is a good sign.
Habemus Papam
While I do not participate in Mass in Latin, I want it available for those who love this liturgy. As Catholics we have room for all.
As Catholics, we should accept the liturgical reform mandated by the bishops at Vatican II. That entails putting the 1962 Missal behind us and only celebrating the reformed Mass. If the reformed Mass were celebrated more in accord with tradition — including the Latin language and Gregorian chant — I believe well over 90% of the tiny subset of Catholics who say they prefer the TLM would accept that way of celebrating the reformed Mass and attend it. For the vast majority of TLMers, they are seeking a traditional, reverent liturgical aesthetic at Mass, not the 1962 Missal itself. That’s how the reformed Mass ought to be celebrated anyway: in accord with liturgical tradition.
So is the Mass celebrated by most Catholics today actually in conformity with what the conciliar documents (SC, etc) really say? This is a double-edge sword, but the fixation is always on those who prefer the “traditional” form. Once again, I’m quite thankful that I’ve been in an Eastern Catholic parish for most of my Catholic life.
To your question, the way the reformed Mass is celebrated in the typical American parish is inept, in my judgment, and does not conform to the Church’s liturgical norms nor does it accord with liturgical tradition.
I understand why the trads want the TLM: because the celebration of the reformed Mass is so embarrassingly awful in 99% of Catholic parishes. The solution is to correct the liturgical abuses and poor celebrations of the reformed Mass in parishes, not to retreat into the preconciliar form of the Mass in liturgical enclaves of traditionalism.
By maintaining the use of the 1962 Missal alongside the reformed Mass, the Roman Church is liturgically schizophrenic.
Preferring and attending the TLM is not a retreat into a preconciliar form or enclave. The TLM reverently and ritually commemorates the sacrifice of Christ’s passion without room for liturgical novelty or debased experimentation.
The Church is not liturgically schizophrenic in allowing use of both forms. Based as it is upon the TLM, the NO’s precursor, foundation, history, meaning, and rubrical model is the TLM.
Seeing the Church’s use of both forms as schizophrenic reflects a want of wisdom and a rigidity in want of charity.
Sebastian: I have the opportunity to celebrate the Holy Mass in churches frequently in three different states and in no way are they “embarrassing awful “ in any of these churches. How much have you been around, and where do you come up with your 99 %?
Carl, two of my cousins and their families recently started attending the Eastern Orthodox Church. I believe Pope Francis was a step too far for them, so they decided to leave. While I understood their choice, it still made me sad. When they explained their reasons for leaving, I found myself without a response.
Mr Olson, I totally agree with you. I too am grateful to be part of a Byzantine Rite parish. Just pure old-world style liturgical services without wars.
Will that Mass at St. Peter’s by Cardinal Burke be with or without James Martin’s parade of homosexual activists?
The Pope met with BOTH Burke and Martin. A good sign I would think.
Br. Jaques, we have come to expect your foolish sentimentality here. You seem to struggle with discriminating between good and evil.
May the Lord forgive disdain against LGBT. Our Lord died for all of his children. Arrogance, like it’s cousin pride. Does nothing to build the body of Christ. It is a poverty to show contempt to brothers and sisters in Christ. So that you might live as you wish.
Pray for the unity of Christendom.
It’s not a disdain against individuals but about Church teaching regarding acting on disordered attractions.
Joe, you seem to have a perverse notion of the moral good; you confuse/invert evil for the good. Come to your senses, man.
If I thought the TLM would bring peace to our world, I would kneel during the whole Mass. As it is, I settle for making my heart kneel before God.
Love God more than Rubrics; Burke is power hungary;
Please explain, Sister, how celebrating Mass at the Vatican is evidence of being “power hungary”. I await your cogent presentation of the matter.
Doubtful she’ll respond to you Carl if she’s one of those “nuns out of uniform.”
Clearly the holy nun (or is it “none”?) is referring to Hungary’s Cardinal Erdo and the future day when he gains further influence in the perennial Catholic Church, as when he introduced the second session of the Synod on the Family, offering this self-evident insight: “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.” (Section III:3, below).
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/32772/full-text-of-cardinal-erdos-introductory-report-for-the-synod-on-the-family
Respectfully Sister, Cardinal Burke has always struck me as a very humble & lovely man.
Typical ‘Nun on the Bus’ sort of comment.
To James Connor above who wrote: “Sebastian: I have the opportunity to celebrate the Holy Mass in churches frequently in three different states and in no way are they “embarrassing awful “ in any of these churches. How much have you been around, and where do you come up with your 99 %?”
Father O’Connor, when you celebrate Mass, do you ONLY say the Black and DO the Red, with no deviations whatsoever? Let’s hope so.