Auxiliary Bishop of Astana (Kazakhstan), Athanasius Schneider, delivered a homily on Saturday, October 24, at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome during the pontifical Mass in the traditional Roman rite of the Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage. In it, he maintained that Saint Pius V “in a certain sense canonized the traditional rite of the Mass” and asked the Virgin to grant the Church “the longed-for liturgical peace.” The full text of the homily has been published by Advaticanum.
The celebration took place at Saint Mary Major because the Secretariat of State did not authorize the pilgrimage Mass to be celebrated this year at Saint Peter’s Basilica, as it did in 2025 at the Altar of the Chair. InfoVaticana has followed the matter since the letter from the Secretariat of State became known, which specified that the Mass could not be celebrated at Saint Peter’s “this year,” as well as the prohibition on entering the Vatican basilica in procession on the same Saturday.
Schneider began by placing the celebration in Mary’s house and recalling that saints and pontiffs celebrated Mass in that basilica, among them Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Pius XII. He started from the idea that “the Church is a mother because there is another Mother” and recalled Pope Francis’s devotion to the Salus Populi Romani icon, before which he prayed on numerous occasions and beside which he chose to be buried.
The bulk of the homily focused on Saint Pius V. According to the bishop, the pontiff solemnly guaranteed, through the apostolic constitution Quo Primum, the perpetual use of the traditional form of the Mass by all priests of the Roman rite. “Thus, Saint Pius V in a certain sense canonized the traditional rite of the Mass,” he stated, and added that no Roman Pontiff has ever dared to revoke or “de-canonize” that constitution.
Schneider then referred to the faithful who wish to participate in this liturgical form, particularly the young. He affirmed that there exists in them “a legitimate desire to participate in holiness in the traditional form” and that they feel treated as second-class Catholics, although, he clarified, “they harbor no bitterness.” In that context, he recalled that this form of the Mass was the one of Francis’s youth, and stated that it was “the Mass of his conversion.”
The bishop supported his argument with words from two pontiffs. From John Paul II he cited a reference to the humility and reverence of the rite of Saint Pius V, and from Pope Francis he quoted a phrase about adoration in the Eastern Churches: “We have lost a bit the sense of adoration. The Eastern Churches preserve it; they adore God.” According to the homily, Francis added that “time does not matter; God is at the center. And this is a treasure.”
Schneider concluded by invoking the Virgin as Queen of Peace. He asked her to “restore the full and unrestricted use of the traditional form of the Roman rite” and to bring to the Church the long-awaited liturgical peace.
The pilgrimage program also included, on Friday, pontifical Vespers at Santa Maria ad Martyres, the Pantheon, presided over by Schneider himself, and on Sunday, Masses of thanksgiving at San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini and at the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims. The organizers expressed regret that the main Mass could not be celebrated at Saint Peter’s.