The group Una Voce and the Summorum Pontificum International Coordinating Committee are joining forces for their fourth “Traditional Pilgrimage To Rome.” An interview with the pilgrimage coordinator, Guillame Ferluc (in the photo)
The international pilgrimage Summorum Pontificum, which first took place in 2012, is now an annual event. The pilgrimage is named after Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s motu proprio which liberalized the celebration of the traditional Roman rite of the Mass in 2007. We asked its main international coordinator, Guillaume Ferluc, about the pilgrimage’s general program, to be held October 22-25 this year in Rome.
Could you elaborate a bit on the main features of this year’s Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage?
Guillame Ferluc: The pilgrimage will commence on Thursday, October 22, at 7:15 pm, with Vespers at Trinità dei Pellegrini to be celebrated by Msgr. Juan Rodolfo Laise. He is bishop emeritus of San Luis in Argentina, and will be coming from San Giovanni Rotondo, where he retired as Capuchin friar. Dom Jean Pateau, abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault, will also be joining us throughout the pilgrimage.
Friday, October 23, will be marked by the recitation of the rosary, due to take place at 9 am at Chiesa Nuova.
That morning there will also be an event for the clergy and seminarians: a visit to the Pontifical Angelicum University with a brief lecture focused on the topical importance of Thomistic philosophy.
The usual Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) will be held early in the afternoon on the Palatine Hill, organized by the Opera Familia Christi, and the 6:30 pm Mass will be celebrated by the Ecclesia Dei Secretary, Msgr. Guido Pozzo, in the church of Santa Maria in Campitelli. The Mass, as also in the case of the vespers, will be sung by the St. Cecile School choir.
Saturday, October 24, will be the day of the Mass in St. Peter’s. The pilgrims will gather in San Lorenzo in Damaso for Eucharistic adoration until 10:30 am, after which they will leave the church in procession heading toward St. Peter’s, where the solemn Pontifical Mass is due to start at 12 noon.
If all goes according to plan, an Italian diocesan cardinal will be the celebrant, unless he is called by Pope Francis to be part of the Synod; then, the Mass would be celebrated by a diocesan bishop belonging to the same episcopal district, as we want to evidence the diocesan dimension of Summorum Pontificum. Either way, the celebrant would be Italian.
Last year’s pilgrimage. The pilgrims are crossing Ponte Sant’Angelo and going toward St. Peter’s Basilica
Why an Italian?
We though an Italian prelate might be in a better position to comment promptly on the Synod’s proceedings and outcome, since it will conclude during the pilgrimage.
This year, finally, the pilgrimage coincides with the general assembly of FIUV (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce), more commonly known as Una Voce…
Exactly. FIUV scheduled their assembly for the very same days as our pilgrimage, so our pilgrims can also attend their religious services, this time due to take place at Domus Australia, the centrally-located guesthouse and church established by Australia’s Catholic Church.
FIUV delegates are coming to Rome with an English choir, directed by a young, talented English musician and classical pianist, Matthew Schellhorn. His choir will sing for us the Christ the King Pontifical Mass on Sunday, October 25, at 11:00 am at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini and will wind up our pilgrimage. But they will also sing at Saturday’s solemn Vespers and Benediction at 6:00 pm for the FIUV, whose liturgical events are also open to our pilgrims.
Who will celebrate the Christ the King Pontifical Mass on Sunday?
The abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault, Dom Jean Pateau, will be our celebrant. This is very important because Fontgombault is a French Benedictine daughter-abbey of Solesmes that has always preserved and used the traditional liturgy. Moreover, Fontgombault is well known among US clergy. For example Bishop Conley, of Lincoln, Nebraska, said he went to Fontgombault in the 1970s after he converted to Catholicism, staying there for nearly a year.
Any other particular difference from last year’s pilgrimage in terms of events, initiatives, projects etc.?
Yes. With a crowdfunding initiative, we were able to collect enough money, 5,900 euros (about $6,500) to enable a young French film director, Loïc Lawin, to shoot a multilingual documentary of the pilgrimage and interviews of its participants, and thus promote the spiritual and aesthetic richness of Tradition. The director, who graduated from the Sorbonne, is himself a Catholic who rediscovered the Faith precisely through the Traditional Latin Mass. We intend to donate the first copies, due to be released by the beginning of 2016, to Pope Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
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