ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 13, 2025 / 17:43 pm
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and vicar general of the pope for Vatican City, presided Oct. 13 over a penitential rite of reparation at the main altar of the church following a serious act of desecration that had taken place on Oct. 10.
After a penitential procession that began at 12:45 p.m. local time, Gambetti sprinkled the altar with holy water and incensed it to purify it.
The rite, attended by members of the chapter of the Vatican basilica, emphasized asking God for “forgiveness” for the desecration, Father Enzo Fortunato, director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
On Friday, Oct. 10, a man whose identity has not been revealed was arrested by security guards after he climbed onto the Altar of the Confession, located under Bernini’s baldachin, and urinated on it while tourists looked on in astonishment.
Pope Leo XIV expressed his consternation upon learning of the incident and asked Gambetti to perform an act of reparation to restore the sanctity of the place and ask forgiveness for what had happened.
This is the second instance of desecration in St. Peter’s Basilica in less than a year. In February, a man severely damaged part of the main altar, breaking several candelabras. In June 2023, an individual of Polish origin stripped naked in the same place as a form of protest against the war in Ukraine.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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This article provides many details about how the Church responds to acts of desecration:
Pope Leo XIV orders an immediate penitential rite in St. Peter’s Basilica following the new profanation
A Penitential Rite of Reparation should also now be held for the homage given to the Pachamama goddess under the Bergoglian regime. And while we’re at it, Leo ought to make reparation to the Church for his support of Cupich’s insane idea of giving an award to a pro-abort Catholic politician. And while he’s at it, Leo ought to make pubĺic reparation for handing over St. Peter’s Basilica to the homosexual activists who desecrated it.
Lord, forgive those pious hypocrites of hatred. The self righteous hypocrites who condemn others externally, while on the inside reek of corruption. Deliver them from hatred and judgment of others.
The desecrations continue, after the LGBt etc. jubilee at St. Peter: now the Pope has granted Muslims a praying room:
Vatican Grants Muslim Plea for Dedicated Prayer Room
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/10/15/vatican-grants-muslim-plea-for-dedicated-prayer-room/
And, I trust, the heretic who performed this obscene act is languishing in a prison somewhere. Forgiveness does not exclude punishment.
Where is this necessary ritual reconciliation in the wake of the hundreds of rabble who were allowed only several weeks ago to process through St. Peter’s Holy Doors under their loathsome banner of sodomy?! All apostolic Roman Catholic leaders, both lay and clerical, particularly members of the hierarchy, should be publicly calling for it, the resulting embarrassment to Leo be damned.
Please tell me where in the Gospel that Jesus condemned gay people? Jesus never does that He only expresses love and compassion. Maybe you should look into your own heart before you pass judgement. Jesus hates sin, that includes heterosexual sex outside of marriage.
ANTHONY WILLIAM CICONTE: Jesus never condemned dropping nuclear weapons on your enemies in wartime either. If you think Christianity is in opposition to the Natural Law, you might find yourself another religion.
If you think that Jesus only talked about love and compassion, you obviously know nothing about the gospels. Homosexuality is a sin, as is defending and excusing it.
The sin itself is the issue, not about hating on the sinner. Jesus died for us sinners .
Yes indeed, sin in the Gospels includes heterosexual sex outside of marriage and also homosexual sex. See Holy Scripture on homosexual sex and those who are unrepentant about it:
Romans 1:26-27
New International Version
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
New International Version
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a]
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
AND SAINT AUGUSTINE
“Those sins which are against nature, like those of the men of Sodom, are in all times and places to be detested and punished. Even if all nations committed such sins, they should all alike be held guilty by God’s law” (Confessions 3.8).
We need to see some real anger displayed over all of these atrocities!! Don’t we have even 1 Cardinal like the late Cardinal O’Connor of New York to speak out in a loud voice! Is there not one left with a voice of COURAGIO as our beloved Pope St.John Paul !! Lord have mercy on us!!
Surely, an act of reparation is to an offense what a re-consecration is to a dessecration?
Unless I am in error, should the high altar not now be reconsecrated?
I found the following:
“Can. 1211 Sacred places are violated by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful, actions which, in the judgment of the local ordinary, are so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place that it is not permitted to carry on worship in them until the damage is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books.”
Noteworthy, placing a Pachamama bowl onto the altar and the recent sanctioning “LGBTQ parade” in St Peter’s belong to the above category, of “a violation by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful. To me, a mentally unsound individual doing what he did is far less sacrilege than two other occurrences. Why? Because the person who desecrated the altar is an OUTSIDER who has something against the Church or God or just deluded or whatever while in two other cases an offense against God has been done by two INSIDERS, by two Popes. PF placed the idol’s bowl onto a consecrated altar (or allowed to do so that is the same thing), PL allowed LGBTQ activists “as they are”, i.e. armed to make an ideological statement (and unquestionably offensive to God), to the same place.
Another reason why I think the latest event was less grave is because it was done in a very straightforward, overt way. There is no question it was disgusting and unacceptable; no one can defend such a behaviour and thus Christians (or any normal human being) are not seduced into joining in blasphemy so to speak. On the other hand, placing the Pachamama bowl onto the altar and allowing LGBTQ into St Peter’s “as they are” are covert actions. They can be interpreted and reinterpreted and the faithful can easily get an idea that it is good to place idols onto the altars for the sake of “tolerance” (or whatever) and there is no problem with LGBTQ ideological parades in the Catholic Church. Being covert, those actions were never repented publicly because to repent them would be to give up that very purpose they serve, of an unbounded tolerance for the price of faith. But it is very safe to read a penitential rite for someone’s – not ours – offensive action.
Great insight Anna, as ever.
One is tempted to believe the Lord allowed this new overt sacrilege to oblige Rome to make reparation. Did the act of reparation and reconsecration (offering the holy sacrifice of the mass) not provide for all the sacrileges of these recent years?
Gross what is wrong with people. Stop being so icky and disrespectful.
I’m surprised the pope was concerned after all does man the turinator not represent Christ. He wants Trump to keep illegals who rape and pillage as they represent Christ.