Cardinal Burke to celebrate Traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica

Cardinal Raymond Burke gives the final blessing after celebrating a Traditional Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica during the third edition of the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome on Oct. 25, 2014. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Sep 9, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Raymond Burke will celebrate a special Traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 25 in a return to a prior custom, suspended since 2022, of an annual pilgrimage of Catholics devoted to the Latin Mass.

Burke will celebrate the Solemn Pontifical Mass, a high Latin Mass said by a bishop, at the Altar of the Chair on the second day of the Oct. 24–26 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, the event’s official website says. The cardinal also celebrated a Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair for the pilgrimage in 2014.

In 2023 and 2024, the pilgrimage was not able to receive authorization to celebrate the Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica from the basilica’s liturgy office, according to organizer Christian Marquant.

The Office of Liturgical Ceremonies of St. Peter’s Basilica and the director of the Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to CNA’s request for comment on this assertion.

The Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, in its 14th year, brings people “ad Petri Sedem” (“to the See of Peter”) to give “testimony of the attachment that binds numerous faithful throughout the whole world to the traditional liturgy,” according to the pilgrimage website.

Burke, a champion of the Traditional Latin Mass and one of the most prominent critics in the hierarchy of the late Pope Francis, under whom he fell conspicuously out of favor, met Pope Leo in a private audience on Aug. 22.

Leo sent a letter of congratulations for Burke’s 50th anniversary of priestly ministry in July.

Rorate Caeli, a prominent website for devotees of the Traditional Latin Mass, called the celebration of a Solemn Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica again an “important sign” of increased tolerance for the traditional liturgy. Pope Francis severely restricted the use of the Latin Mass in 2021 and with subsequent legislation.

The Mass on Oct. 25 will be preceded by a half-mile procession from the Basilica of Sts. Celso and Giuliano to St. Peter’s Basilica.