Thousands of Catholics thronged the Vatican this past week as they attended the 11th annual Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage.
Pope Benedict XVI published the wildly successful Motu Proprio in 2007, leading to a massive boom in vocations, Mass attendance and renewal amongst young people.
Proceedings for the pilgrimage began on Friday last with Vespers at the Pnatheon, led by relatively liberal Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference.
Zuppi’s presence particularly angered enemies of the Latin Mass online, who often try to paint the issue as a question of obedience towards Pope Francis.
The pilgrimage also saw large crowds attend Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The event was the second one to take place after the wildly unpopular Traditiones Custodes, which attempted to appeal to a small cohort of extremists who despise the Latin Mass and want it gone.
The document has been unsuccessful at diminishing the attachment that many have for the Latin Mass, with attendance steadying even in the few areas where bishops have spitefully cracked down on the Mass in order to curry favour with higher ups in the Vatican.
As with anything else associated with the Latin Mass, the striking thing about images from the pilgrimage in Rome is that so many young people and families are involved, a far cry from some of the images of those attending Synodal events.
To quote Pope Benedict’s seminal document:
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.
