In an ongoing dispute over a traditionalist pilgrimage in Rome, a Vatican spokesman said Thursday that he was not aware of letters published this week, which appear to call into question previous Vatican claims about the group’s requests for accommodation at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The remarks point to an ongoing dispute over the Vatican’s decision not to allow the pilgrims to conduct a procession or adoration liturgy inside the basilica.
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Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told The Pillar Oct 29 that he was unaware of letters published Oct. 28 by an Italian traditionalist blog, which appear to show that the Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica provided details, which the Vatican had previously claimed were missing when the group requested to process into the basilica.
The release of the letters is part of an ongoing exchange in the past few months between the pilgrimage organizers and the Vatican, in which organizers requested to celebrate Mass or process into Saint Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 24 — as they had in some prior years — but saw their requests rejected.
Last week, the Holy See Press Office told The Pillar that a request for the pilgrimage to process into the basilica had been rejected, but if the group wanted to have Eucharistic adoration or time for prayer within the basilica, as in other years, “they should’ve made a specific request to that end.”
But a Sept. 8 letter, published Wednesday by Italian blog Messa in Latino, shows that the organizers asked the Secretariat of State for accommodation to “pray for the pope at the Altar of confession, and adore the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of the Chair,” in addition to their procession, seemingly contradicting that the request was not specific enough.
In response to the publication of the letters, a Holy See spokesman told The Pillar that he was “not aware of any relevant correspondence.”
The circumstances around the event have become contentious after images of the Oct. 24 event on the Via della Conciliazione went viral on social media, with online commentators alleging the group had been “blocked from entering the Vatican.”