The Traditional Latin Mass was celebrated at St. Michael’s altar in St. Peter’s Basilica Sept. 29, just weeks before Cardinal Raymond Burke will celebrate it at the basilica’s Altar of the Throne, and mere days before a heavy restriction on the liturgical form takes effect in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina.
A beautiful Traditional Latin Mass was celebrated at St. Michael’s altar in the Vatican this morning for the feast of St. Michael.
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— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) September 29, 2025
The Catholic Herald reports that the liturgy is the first of its kind celebrated at a main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica in over two years. Pope Francis issued in July 2021 the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which significantly restricted the celebration of the Latin Mass in the 1962 missal, and issued a rescript further clarifying the motu proprio’s implementation in February 2023.
The Sept. 29 Mass was celebrated for the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, and was confirmed to the Catholic Herald by Peter Carter, executive director of the Sacred Music Project, who was at the basilica when it took place. Carter described the TLM that occurred at St. Peter’s as a “surprise blessing.”
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On Oct. 25, the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be celebrated at the altar of the Throne in the Basilica in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Cardinal Burke will celebrate the Oct. 25 liturgy as a part of the annual Ad Petri Sedem Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage, which has celebrated the pontifical Mass 11 times at the basilica since 2012. The pontifical Mass at the altar of the Throne did not take place in 2023 or 2024, according to a previous CatholicVote report.
A Sept. 8 press release from International Una Voce Federation (IUVF), a member of the group organizing the pilgrimage, states that the pilgrimage had not received permission to have a Mass at the basilica in 2023 or 2024.
“We are grateful to Pope Leo for his pastoral response to the request for a Traditional Mass in St Peter’s,” FIUV President Joseph Shaw said in the release. “This celebration symbolises the unity with the Holy Father so desired by Catholics attached to the ancient rite of Mass.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., bishops in several dioceses are implementing restrictions on the celebration of the TLM, or the pre-conciliar Mass according to the 1962 missal. In May, Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin issued a directive moving up the date to cease parish-based celebrations of the Latin Mass, to take effect July 8. This effective date was earlier than the previous Vatican-granted extension for four parishes in the diocese to celebrate the TLM until Oct. 2. Following outcry from the faithful, Bishop Martin changed the effective date back to Oct. 2.
The celebration of the pre-conciliar Mass is also set to be restricted in parishes at the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, and the Diocese of Monterey, California. In June, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of the Archdiocese of Detroit announced that the celebration of the TLM will be limited to four non-parish locations in the archdiocese, effective July 1.
Some bishops have requested and received renewed two-year extensions from the Vatican allowing parish-based offerings of the TLM to continue in their dioceses. They include Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington in 2024 and Bishop Michael Sis of San Angelo, Texas, earlier this year.
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