The Italian blog Messa in Latino published on Wednesday, October 28, the copies of the letters exchanged between the Secretariat of State and the chaplain of the traditional pilgrimage Ad Petri Sedem, the French priest Claude Barthe, which led to the prohibition of pilgrims entering in procession into St. Peter’s Basilica. The dossier includes an unpublished document: the letter Barthe addressed to Leo XIV on June 12 asking him to renew “paternally the authorization granted last year” to celebrate the traditional Mass in the Vatican basilica. The response did not come from the Pope, but from the Secretariat of State, and it was negative on two occasions.
In his letter to the Pontiff, written in French and published by the blog in Italian translation, Barthe recalls that the pilgrimage leads the faithful each year to Rome, before the tomb of the Apostle, and that they have been granted the grace of celebrating the traditional Mass in St. Peter’s every year except in 2023 and 2024. In October 2025, it was celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke at the Altar of the Chair, with authorization from Leo XIV. The chaplain now appealed directly to the Pope to repeat that permission.
The first response is dated August 7, protocol number 55,786, and signed by the Substitute for General Affairs, Archbishop Paolo Rudelli. It notes that Barthe had requested to celebrate a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and informs him that “for this year, we cannot grant your request”, in words translated from Italian by this editorial team. No reason is given.
Barthe wrote again to Rudelli on September 8 with a much more limited request. He no longer asked for an altar: only that the pilgrims be allowed to enter in procession into the basilica on Saturday, October 24, to pray for the Pope before the Altar of the Confession and to adore the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of the Chair. He added that the sacristy of the basilica had informed them that this would be possible at one o’clock in the afternoon. Rudelli’s second response, dated September 30 and with protocol 58,510, consists of two lines, according to the copy already circulated by Diane Montagna: “it is not possible to grant your request”. According to Messa in Latino, that letter was delivered after October 10, two weeks before the pilgrimage.
Montagna, who had access to that document, had already reported it on Sunday the 25th. What is new is the letter to the Pope, the text of the August refusal, and the complete sequence. The blog does not explain who provided the copies and maintains that their content refutes the many insinuations in recent days seeking to discredit the pilgrimage, without specifying which ones it refers to.
The refusal affected more than 1,500 pilgrims, according to Vaticanist Edward Pentin, who reported in the National Catholic Register that the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, had not responded to his questions about the reasons. The president of the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum, Christian Marquant, denied to the same outlet that the Vatican had offered the organizers alternative dates. According to Pentin, that same Saturday a Lectio Francisci was scheduled at the Altar of the Chair for the eighth centenary of the death of St. Francis, although it did not coincide with the time requested by the pilgrims.
On Saturday the 24th, the procession stopped beside the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s Mass was celebrated at Santa Maria Maggiore, under conditions that the Coetus assured on Tuesday had been agreed upon from the beginning with the Liberian basilica. None of the published letters attributes the decision to the Pope: both bear the signature of the Substitute.
Barthe asked the Pope in June to renew the traditional Mass in St. Peter’s; the Secretariat of State replied twice, with two brief letters and without a single reason.
Read also
- The Vatican prohibits traditional Mass pilgrims from entering St. Peter’s this Saturday
- The organizers of Ad Petri Sedem clarify the restrictions on Schneider’s Mass at Santa Maria Maggiore
- St. Peter’s schedules an event and a Mass at the Altar of the Chair on the day it was denied to the Summorum Pontificum