A gathering of the faithful

The 6th Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage shows more than ever the universal character of the traditional Latin liturgy, says Alberto Carosa

The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum by Benedict XVI, with its aim to liberalize the celebration of the traditional pre-Vatican II Roman liturgy, was published on 7 July 2007, but entered into force on 14 September 2007. So it was no coincidence that this year’s thanksgiving international pilgrimage to Rome of the faithful attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite took place on September 14-17, and thus coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Motu Proprio.

It was the 6th pilgrimage promoted by the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum (CISP), a group that brings together traditionalist Catholic organizations from different countries.

For the first time it received a sort of imprimatur as if it were an institutional initiative of the Church, because the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei wrote to all the superiors of its institutes and communities, male and female, inviting them to participate.

The pilgrimage programme began on Thursday, September 14, with the conference “A Renewed Youthfulness for the Whole Church” at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, or Angelicum. Among the keynote speakers was Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who had particularly encouraging words, especially when he called upon us to cherish the liturgical value of silence as an antidote against what he called “the dictatorship of noise”, cautioning against “anthropocentric liturgies”. He also urged that we drop the use of the term ‘traditionalists’, since “you do not belong in a box on the shelf or in a museum of curiosities. You are not traditionalists: you are Catholics of the Roman rite as am I and as is the Holy Father”.

The liturgical dimension of the pilgrimage was ushered in on Thursday evening after the conference, when the Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, celebrated the inaugural Solemn Vespers for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the Basilica of San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio in Piazza Venezia. It is noteworthy that this senior prelate, as far as is known, never before publicly associated himself with the celebration of traditional liturgy. The liturgical part, which went on the whole of Friday with the Way of

'Here were the faithful from the four corners of the world, from Japan to Georgia, from Africa to Latin America, from the US to Scandinavia'

the Cross near the Colosseum and a Solemn Mass in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva , culminated with a pontifical in St Peter’s on Saturday morning. The pontifical was preceded by Eucharistic Adoration in Chiesa di Santa Maria in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) , where around 2000 of the faithful from around the world went in procession to St Peter’s basilica amid prayers, hymns and standards through the streets of Rome. This was led by the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, at the head of some 300 clergy.

As the celebrant of the pontifical at the Altar of the Chair, he read out the message sent by the Holy Father with his apostolic blessing. In particular, the Pope called upon the pilgrims “to persevere in prayer for the support of his Petrine ministry as successor of the apostle Peter”.

The pilgrimage gave one the chance to see the universal character of Summorum Pontificum – here were the faithful from the four corners of the world, from Japan to Georgia, from Africa to Latin America, from the US to Scandinavia.

Whereas the liturgical part of the pilgrimage ended on Sunday, September 17, with a Solemn High Mass in the Dominican Rite in the traditional parish church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the non-liturgical part was capped by the International Federation Una Voce (FIUV) open forum on Saturday evening, whose proceedings saw the launch of a book by one of its former presidents, Leo Darroch. In his keynote speech, he described how the FIUV’s decades-long struggle for the preservation of the Traditional Rite of the Mass, especially under the late Presidents Erich Vermehren de Saventhem and Michael Davies, ultimately led to the promulgation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. The author recalled the prophetic words of Dr Eric de Saventhem, in June 1970 in New York, at the first General Assembly of FIUV in the United States: the Church will experience a new spring of faith spearheaded by young religious and laypeople “with ardent hearts” thanks to the “the treasure of a truly sacred liturgy”.

“This quite remarkable prophecy by Dr de Saventhem is coming true”, said Leo Darroch in his conclusion.

I realised the truth of this when, at the Palazzo Cesi, I met one of the young hermit nuns who have established a religious house in one of the most inhospitable areas of the globe, the arctic Lapland in the northernmost part of Sweden, and who have to drive no less than 400 km for the Mass and the sacraments! Needless to say, what they most urgently need is a chaplain prepared to settle there and nourish their ardent souls with “the treasure of a truly sacred liturgy”.