What really happened with the TLM pilgrimage in Rome?

According to Father Silveira @joaosilveiraa:

“Today, at the meeting of the organizers of the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage, Christian Marquant commented on the controversy stirred up on social media by people who wish to sow confusion:

“1. The request to use the altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica was made on the day of Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s audience with Pope Leo at the Vatican, on 18 December 2025, ten months and one week before the Pilgrimage.

“2. On 7 August, eight months after the request, a negative response arrived from the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. No alternative date was suggested for the Mass, contrary to what's claimed by those people hungry for the limelight.

“3. On 8 September, Father Claude Barthe, chaplain of the Pilgrimage, sent a request to the Secretariat of State asking whether the Pilgrimage might enter the Basilica to pray at the tomb of St. Peter, as had happened in the fourteen previous years, even when no Mass was celebrated there: “May we nevertheless, on the coming 24 October, enter the Basilica in procession, pray for the Pope at the Confession, and adore the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of the Chair? The Basilica’s sacristy informs us that this would be possible at 1 p.m., should Your Excellency grant us the necessary permission.”

“4. On 30 September, the response was sent by post, delivered a few days later to the Apostolic Nunciature in Paris, and only reached Father Barthe on 12 October, less than two weeks before the Pilgrimage. The response was negative. The pilgrims would not even be allowed to enter the Basilica to pray.

“5. This was not disclosed immediately at that time because the organizers still tried to obtain permission for the group to enter the Basilica, given the importance of that gesture and the scandal it would represent for the pilgrims, and for Catholics in general, to be denied entry in the context of a pilgrimage. Since these efforts were unsuccessful, the announcement was made one day before the procession that led the pilgrims to St. Peter’s Square.

“6. Christian Marquant lamented the confusion stirred up by people who have no connection whatsoever with this initiative of Catholic faithful, and he emphasized that the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage has at its heart love for the Pope and for the Catholic Church.

Long live Christ the King! Viva Cristo-Rei!”

@BernardiMotta comments: “These silly interdicts seem to be the last desperate gestures of an aging curial elite that won’t accept being on the wrong side of History. Time will fix this. Nobody lives forever.”