The auxiliary bishop of Milan and episcopal vicar for the city area, Giuseppe Vegezzi, has announced the creation of a pastoral coordination for the faithful who participate in the traditional Ambrosian liturgy at the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione. The announcement took place on All Saints’ Day, when Vegezzi attended the first of the community’s Sunday Masses and delivered the homily. At the following Mass, the celebrant, Monsignor Francesco Braschi, read the bishop’s letter, as detailed by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana.
Braschi presented the initiative as “a further expression of the bishop’s care for this reality of ours,” in words taken from Vegezzi’s letter, which also referred to the informal meetings held with the faithful between June and September. From those conversations emerged the proposal for a path of spirituality and formation open to all the faithful.
Six priests and six laypeople, for three years
The coordination will begin on 15 November, the first Sunday of the Ambrosian Advent, which starts two weeks earlier than the Roman one. Its first activity will be a formation day on the texts of Advent in the traditional Ambrosian rite. The composition set for the first three-year term includes Monsignor Claudio Fontana, the archbishop’s delegate for celebrations in the ancient rite throughout the archdiocese, and Monsignor Carlo Faccendini, abbot of Sant’Ambrogio, whose parish territory includes the Consolazione.
Also taking part are Monsignor Paolo Cortesi, rector of the church, and the persons in charge of the celebrations, Braschi and Father Riccardo dell’Acqua. The body is completed by six laypeople, chosen from among the faithful of the two Sunday Masses, according to the bishop’s letter.
From San Rocco to the Consolazione, in 2015
The more antiquo celebrations have been based at the Consolazione since 2015; previously they were held at San Rocco al Gentilino. Their origin dates back to 1984, when Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini applied to the Ambrosian liturgy the first indult of John Paul II, which allowed continued use of the 1954 missal promulgated by Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster.
Fontana has maintained in a reflection that celebrating with that missal forms part of an uninterrupted continuity of the Church’s Tradition. Braschi, for his part, interviewed in December 2025 by Andrea Galli in Avvenire, spoke of liturgical variety as a richness and explained that knowing the ancient rite helps to understand the Missal of Paul VI better.
The traditional Ambrosian rite was already in the news in Milan last December, when a solemn Mass was celebrated in the basilica of San Ambrogio, as reported by InfoVaticana.