After refusing permission for an annual Latin Mass pilgrimage to celebrate a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican is instead hosting a talk on St Francis of Assisi at the same time and altar the pilgrimage Mass would have used.

On September 24, three speakers will take to the pulpit at the Altar of the Chair of St Peter in the Vatican, delivering a conference to mark the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis. The event is open for ticketed entry only, meaning that for several hours before the 3:30pm start time the pews in front of the altar will be closed off to tourists and pilgrims alike.  

According to the organisers, the event “will explore St. Francis’s presence in Rome, his connection to the See of Peter, and the value of fraternity in today’s multicultural context.” Each of the talks will be interspersed with musical performances and the afternoon will conclude with a 6pm Mass.  

Among the speakers is Sister Simona Brambilla, the prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, who will deliver a talk on “fraternity and the challenge of multiculturalism in society and religious communities”.

News of the event comes soon after it was revealed that the Vatican denied permission for the annual Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to offer a Mass in St Peter’s. The pilgrimage was due to use the Altar of the Chair that same afternoon.  

The pilgrimage Mass had taken place last year with Cardinal Raymond Burke as celebrant, but no such permission was granted for the upcoming 2026 edition.  

Organisers had sent a request for the Mass to Pope Leo via Bishop Athanasius Schneider, who delivered it to the Pope in a private audience last December. Veteran Vaticanist Edward Pentin noted that the organisers also requested a papal audience in the same letter handed to Leo.  

After many months of waiting, no response came from the Pope regarding the requested audience and sources told this correspondent that the Secretariat of State informed the pilgrimage organisers in August that permission had been denied for the pilgrimage Mass.

The annual Latin Mass pilgrimage weekend at the end of October normally involves a procession through the streets of Rome and into the Vatican. There, near the relics of St Peter, a Mass is customarily celebrated, although in 2023 and 2024 permission for a Mass was denied.  

Instead of holding Mass in the Vatican, this year the pilgrimage will process into St Peter’s as normal, before then heading across the city for a Mass in the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major.  

Pilgrimage organisers have been keen to express their gratitude to Cardinal Roland Makrickas – the archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore – for hosting them, but many Catholics unconnected to the organising body have interpreted the prohibition on celebrating the pilgrimage Mass inside the Vatican as a deliberate move.  

Given that it is now revealed the pilgrimage Mass has been denied permission, whilst a talk was approved directly in its place – at the same altar and at the same time the Mass would have been – many will find it hard to interpret such a move as anything other than a direct snub.  

It also gives weight to a growing feeling among many that Leo is comfortable with leaving the status quo largely untouched regarding the traditional Mass and the restrictions placed on it by his predecessor. The Pontiff had expressed a desire to meet with Latin Mass devotees and educate himself about the topic, given that he declared himself last year to be uninformed about it.  

Since that time he has met with a number of prominent clerical advocates of the old Mass, though this has led to no real change in policy. His pontificate has so far been marked by mixed signals on the traditional Mass.

In the spring, Leo instructed the French bishops to find “concrete solutions” allowing for the “generous inclusion of those sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo, in accordance with the guidelines established by the Second Vatican Council regarding the liturgy.” The Pope is “particularly attentive” to the growth of Latin Mass communities, Cardinal Pietro Parolin wrote on Leo’s behalf.  

But this directive comes against the full directive of Traditions Custodes, very much still in force on the statute books, which urges bishops in the entirely opposite direction regarding the growth and promulgation of the traditional Mass.

Over the summer, Cardinal Arthur Roche attested that Leo is not going to change the current arrangements. The prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship (DDW) stated directly that “no, Pope Leo is not going to change Traditionis Custodes, and he’s not going back to Summorum Pontificum.”

With traditional Masses largely existing at the whim of the bishop and at the mercy of the DDW, many devotees of the old rite are warning that the Vatican’s policy will eventually backfire.

Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.