ROMAN REPORT
A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Graced by the Celebration of the Vetus Ordo By Alberto Carosa
U
ntil recently the author of this article had never seriously considered the idea of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but everything changed when the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP) informed his supporters and friends that the Institute would organize a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in late January. As far as is known, it was the first such pilgrimage arranged by the Italian chapter of the ICKSP as a sort of test for an initiative graced by the celebration of the Old Rite more than once a day. Ultimately, as a whole the test was successful and the Institute is planning another pilgrimage in late 2019 or early next year. The ICKSP is a religious institute of pontifical right whose apostolate is based on the celebration of the preVatican II liturgy, but this liturgy is almost no longer celebrated in the Holy Land, according to the authoritative opinion of our guide during the pilgrimage, Don Michele Somaschini, a priest of the diocese of Milan and close friend of the ICKSP. By contrast, he points out, a number of the Christian holy sites with their buildings and structures, including altars and rails, have remained unchanged since 1757, when the Ottoman Empire, reconfirmed by decree in 1853, froze the situation with regard to the shared ownership, possession and use of these sites among the various Christian communities and denominations. The decree, which provides that nothing be changed without unanimous consensus, still applies today and to give an idea of how complex the situation is, suffice to say that up to five Christian denominations currently cohabit in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem: Greek Orthodox, Latin (namely the Catholic community,
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The Basilica of the Annunciation represented by the Franciscans under the Status Quo provisions), Armenian, Copt, Syrian and Ethiopian. The Holy Sepulcher was one of the three main holy sites, together with the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and that of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Traditional Masses were also celebrated by the other two priests accompanying our group of pilgrims. Whereas Don Michele was mainly in charge of logistics, two priests of the ICKSP, Don Antonio Landais, seconded to the Institute's Roman headquarters, and Don Federico Pozza, who instead is based in Florence, were responsible for the liturgical celebrations in the various holy places visited by the group of pilgrims. In total, including the three priests, the group consisted of 17 people, an excellent number for the success of the pilgrimage, as it is preferable to have
groups not exceeding 20. In fact, it would have been quite difficult for a bigger group of people to be accommodated in the narrow spaces available at most of the holy sites, and notably in the above three main, most symbolic places. Moreover, in these three sites the Masses had to be celebrated ay side altars or chapels, and not where the specific event exactly took place. In Nazareth the Mass was celebrated in the presbytery in the lower Basilica of the Annunciation, just opposite the grotto where the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary. Whereas this basilica is held by the Franciscans, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem is in the hands of the Greek Orthodox clergy, another legacy of the above Status Quo which appears to be all the more puzzling if one considers, as noted by Don Michele, that there are virtually no Orthodox faithful
SUMMER 2019
