The XV International Summorum Pontificum Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage, which will take place in Rome from October 23 to 25, will not be able to celebrate its pontifical Mass this year according to the traditional Roman rite in St. Peter’s Basilica. Following the authorization granted in 2025, when Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke presided over the celebration at the Altar of the Chair, this year permission has not been granted to repeat it in the Vatican basilica.
The celebration will finally take place on Saturday, October 24, at 3:00 p.m., at the high altar of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, and will be presided over by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. The pilgrims will nevertheless maintain the traditional procession to St. Peter’s and enter the basilica to pray before moving on to Saint Mary Major. This is stated in the official program of the pilgrimage.
Rome does not grant permission to celebrate in St. Peter’s
The change modifies what was initially planned for the 2026 edition. Last May it had been announced that the pontifical Mass would return to the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s, continuing the return of the traditional celebration to the Vatican basilica that had taken place in October 2025.
Read also: The Traditional Mass will return to the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter’s Basilica in October
Sources close to the organizers have confirmed to The Catholic Herald that authorization to celebrate the Mass in St. Peter’s was not granted and that the decision was communicated to the organization through the Secretariat of State. According to the British media outlet, Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, then offered the possibility of celebrating the Mass there.
No official explanation from the Holy See has been made public regarding the reasons for the refusal. A Vatican source familiar with the conversations, cited by AdVaticanum, maintains that the scale reached by the 2025 celebration and the way it was subsequently received in some traditional circles would not have been well received among certain Vatican officials. The source stated that that reaction was perceived as a display of triumph. In any case, this is an explanation from an anonymous source and not a motivation officially communicated by Rome.
The pilgrims will enter St. Peter’s
The refusal affects exclusively the celebration of the pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s and will not prevent the pilgrimage from reaching the Vatican basilica. The final program maintains the devotional itinerary planned for the morning of Saturday, October 24.
Participants will pray the Rosary at 10:00 a.m. in front of the Basilica of Saints Celsus and Julian, and one hour later the procession toward the Vatican will begin. Their arrival in St. Peter’s Square is scheduled for noon, followed by security checks and entry into the basilica. At 1:00 p.m. a time of prayer will take place there.
Afterward, the pilgrims will have to move to Saint Mary Major, where Schneider will celebrate at 3:00 p.m. at the high altar. The organizers have expressed their regret at not being able to celebrate in St. Peter’s and, at the same time, their gratitude to Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal Makrickas for the possibility of doing so in the Liberian basilica.
Saint Mary Major is not a minor see within Rome. It is one of the four major papal basilicas and also houses the tomb of Saint Pius V, the Pope who promulgated in 1570, through the bull Quo primum, the edition of the Roman Missal prepared after the Council of Trent.
The Burke precedent in 2025
The change takes on special relevance because of what happened less than a year ago. On October 25, 2025, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke presided over a pontifical Mass according to the 1962 Missal at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter’s. The celebration marked the return of the pilgrimage’s pontifical Mass to that altar after it had not received authorization to be celebrated there in 2023 and 2024.
Read also: The traditional rite returns to the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter’s
The situation in recent years has been changing. In 2021 and 2022 the pilgrimage Mass could be celebrated inside St. Peter’s, although without a prelate receiving authorization to preside over it. In 2023 and 2024, on the other hand, the celebration of the Mass was not permitted and the pilgrims were able to carry out acts of prayer inside the basilica. In 2025, Burke once again presided over a pontifical Mass at the Altar of the Chair.
Read also: The Traditional Latin Mass returns to St. Peter’s on the feast of St. Michael
The 2025 celebration brought together a number of faithful that, according to sources close to the organization cited by The Catholic Herald, surprised Vatican personnel. Those same sources had already warned at the time that the wide public impact of the Mass could generate a reaction among sectors of the Curia opposed to a relaxation of restrictions on the traditional liturgy.
Last year’s authorization had been interpreted as a possible sign of change under the pontificate of Leo XIV. The 2026 refusal prevents, for the moment, speaking of continuity in the authorizations for the pilgrimage to celebrate its pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s.
Schneider will preside over Vespers and the pontifical Mass
The XV Summorum Pontificum Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage will begin on Friday, October 23. At 6:30 p.m., Schneider will preside over pontifical Vespers in the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres, the Pantheon. On Saturday the Rosary, the procession to St. Peter’s, the prayer inside the basilica, and, afterward, the pontifical Mass at Saint Mary Major will take place.
On Sunday, October 25, the feast of Christ the King according to the traditional calendar, thanksgiving Masses will be celebrated. At 8:30 a.m. there will be a celebration at San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini, presided over by Canon Antoine Landais; at 11:00 a.m. the closing Mass will take place at the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims; and at 4:00 p.m. Bishop Marco Agostini will celebrate at Sant’Anna in Laterano.
The pilgrimage has been celebrated annually in Rome since 2012 and brings together priests, religious, and faithful from different countries linked to the traditional Roman liturgy. This year it will once again take its participants to St. Peter’s, but, unlike in 2025 and what was initially announced for 2026, the pontifical Mass will have to be celebrated outside the Vatican basilica and will have as its venue the high altar of Saint Mary Major.