(source)
Standing Room Only at the Return of the Old Rite to Saint Peter's
Nicola Spuntoni
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana
October 27, 2025
Reinstated after a three-year ban, the traditional liturgy fills the Vatican Basilica: over two thousand people attend the pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Burke for the annual Summorum Pontificum gathering. High numbers and a low average age testify to the excellent health of the faithful attached to the Vetus Ordo.
The best image of the Pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke at the altar of St. Peter's Chair was taken in a joke by Damian Thompson, a brilliant writer for the British magazine The Spectator: “You know it's an ancient rite when the priests aren't ancient.” And indeed, what was most striking about Saturday afternoon's ceremony was the young age not only of the priests but also of all the faithful present.
There were certainly more than two thousand people. The gendarmes and sampietrini noticed this as they found themselves managing the impressive influx for the highlight of the 14th Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. With the benches and standing room filled to capacity, many were forced to remain in the adjacent aisles, and queues soon formed inside the Basilica. It was a “sweet” inconvenience, if you will, because it testified to the excellent health of the community of lovers of the so-called Tridentine Mass. There was a large turnout and a lot of media attention, with a large contingent of journalists and photographers unlike anything seen before 2022.
The Mass in Vetus Ordo for the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage had been absent from St. Peter's for three years, and the last time it was celebrated, it was not pontifical. At that time, Traditionis Custodes had already been in force for more than a year, and the initial stages of a liturgical war were underway, causing serious divisions within the Church during the latter part of Francis' pontificate. The controversial motu proprio is still there, sadly in full force, but Leo XIV has sent a significant and also conciliatory signal by authorizing this Mass. Hostility to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite is a minority characteristic even in the most progressive faction of the Church, and even those who consider its celebration anachronistic are perplexed about the usefulness of Traditionis Custodes and the restrictive measures that followed it.
In his homily, Cardinal Burke paid homage to the figure of Mary and recalled the centenary of the apparition in the convent of Pontevedra, when Our Lady, with the Child Jesus at her side, recommended to Sister Lucia of Fatima devotion on the first five Saturdays for five consecutive months as reparation for the offenses committed against the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and her Immaculate Heart.
The words pronounced by the Prefect Emeritus of the Segnatura was very spiritual, which may have disappointed some of the journalists present, who are accustomed to reporting everything this great pastor does and says in “political” terms. Not surprisingly, those who reported on it highlighted above all the passage against “atheistic communism,” although it would have been fair to contextualize it within the historical evocation of Our Lady of Fatima to which Burke was referring.
And speaking of atheistic communism, in the front row of pews, next to Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, 97-year-old Cardinal Ernest Simoni also attended the celebration. Having come specially from Florence, the elderly cardinal spent 28 years of his life in prison and forced labor, to which he had been condemned by the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, who had proclaimed atheism as the state religion in Albania. It was he who strongly wanted to conclude Saturday afternoon's ceremony by reciting the prayer of exorcism to St. Michael the Archangel written by Leo XIII.
Both he and Burke reminded us to pray for another Leo, Leo XIV, who, by authorizing Mass at St. Peter's, has already put an end to the most drastic season of the liturgical war against the Vetus Ordo inaugurated with Traditionis Custodes, causing great pain to Benedict XVI, who is still alive.
[Italian]
