After the Vatican denied a traditionalist pilgrimage in Rome permission to hold a procession to St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, Vatican officials told The Pillar that organizers did not make specific enough requests for holding a liturgical event at the basilica.
As controversy over the pilgrimage played out on social media, both sides offered differing accounts of how, when, and why the traditionalist pilgrimage was not allowed to process into St. Peter’s Basilica last weekend.
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The Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage — sometimes called the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage — has been held every year since 2012. The pilgrimage is organized by Coetus Internationalis, a coalition of traditionalist associations throughout the world.
The pilgrimage is usually held on the last weekend of October, to coincide with the Feast of Christ the King in the pre-counciliar liturgical calendar. It starts on Friday with a conference on liturgical affairs. It has also historically included vespers in a Roman basilica, followed by a procession into Saint Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, which is often followed by Mass.
Since Pope Francis’ Traditionis custodes was promulgated in 2021, the pilgrimage has only sometimes been allowed to celebrate Mass in Saint Peter’s, and in other years has instead included in the basilica Eucharistic adoration and benediction, or prayer of the liturgy of the hours. In 2025, the Mass in St. Peter’s was celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Burke.
The pilgrimage typically ends on Sunday with several thanksgiving Masses in Roman churches.
But this year, Christian Marquant, president of Coetus Internationalis, announced on Friday, Oct. 23 that the pilgrimage had not been given permission to process into the basilica the next day. And, he said, no reason had been offered to them by Vatican officials for the denial of permission, nor had they been offered alternative arrangements for the day, and instead had to find an alternative venue themselves.
A Vatican spokesman told The Pillar that the group had only been denied permission to enter the basilica in a procession — such processions are typically not permitted — and could have been instead allowed to gather for prayer inside, if organized had made a specific request to do so.
The event became the subject of viral commentary online, with confused and unsubstantiated claims circulating widely, some blaming the Vatican for arbitrarily blocking the event and others accusing the pilgrims of staging a photo op to stoke controversy.