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Professor Peter Kwasniewski described this Sunday, in a message published on X, as «petty and vindictive» the decisions of Vatican staff regarding the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, held in Rome from October 23 to 25.
According to him, after having granted the permits, the authorities withdrew them at the last moment.
«Among the pettiest and most vindictive things I have ever seen,» stated the Catholic writer and lecturer, who listed four specific measures.
The first, according to Kwasniewski, was forcing the Vespers to be moved forward «so that many would miss them.»
The second was preventing the pilgrims from entering in procession into St. Peter’s Basilica to profess their Catholic faith and their communion with the successor of Peter.
The third was communicating at the last minute that the Mass at Santa Maria Maggiore could last «only one hour,» which, he added, disrupted the carefully planned solemn pontifical Mass.
The fourth was the prohibition of official photographs, which the professor linked to the rule attributed to Cardinal Arthur Roche of not including the traditional Mass in parish bulletins.
Kwasniewski also warned of the consequences of these decisions. In his view, they make the Vatican appear «desperate and out of touch,» alienate and radicalize traditionalists, and rhetorically strengthen the arguments of the Society of St. Pius X.
«If the Vatican’s desire is to create more division, polarization, and resentment while fueling the traditionalist fire, they have done a brilliant job,» he concluded.
Kwasniewski’s message cites another post on X about the pilgrimage, which sought to clarify «theories» circulating on the internet.
According to that text, the organizers requested permission for the Mass in the Vatican through a letter that Bishop Athanasius Schneider personally delivered to Leo XIV in December.
The pilgrimage marks its fifteenth edition and is always celebrated on the same date. They received no response until August, when the Secretariat of State communicated that there could be no Mass in the Vatican.
The organizers then announced that it would not take place and that the pilgrims would enter in procession at 1 p.m. on Saturday to attend the 3 p.m. Mass at Santa Maria Maggiore; permission for that procession had been granted in April 2026.
The same post recounts that in September St. Peter’s announced an event at 3:30 p.m. at the Altar of the Chair, the place where the pilgrimage celebrated its Mass last year.
This week, «just yesterday» according to the author, the organizers received another letter from the Secretariat of State informing them that they could not enter in procession into the Vatican.
The text emphasizes that events in the basilica do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Secretariat of State, but rather the archpriest and the Fabric of St. Peter’s, making its intervention «strange.»
On Saturday, according to that account, the pilgrims walked through the streets to the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square, accompanied by the Italian police, and there they were stopped by the Vatican, as that is the limit of Italian police jurisdiction.
They were then informed that they could only remain one hour at Santa Maria Maggiore, so the authorized solemn pontifical Mass had to be converted into a low Mass, and that official photographs were not permitted.
InfoVaticana already reported on the prohibition of entering St. Peter’s and, in September, that Rome vetoed the traditional Mass at St. Peter’s and moved it to Santa Maria Maggiore.