Extraordinary form Mass at high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica

For the first time in over four decades, a solemn Pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite has been offered at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter’s Basilica. Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, who served as President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences from 1998 to 2009, was the celebrant at the May 15 Mass, taking the place of Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, who had been scheduled to attend.



Here is what the 16/17 May edition of the Osservatore Romano, the "semi-official" newspaper of the Holy See published:

On Sunday morning, 15 May, concluding the third conference on the motu proprioSummorum Pontificum, Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite was celebrated in the Vatican basilica. At the altar of the Chair it was celebrated by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, in the presence of three Cardinals - William Joseph Levada, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Franc Rodé and Domenico Bartolucci, who directed the final chants - and some bishops and prelates of the Roman Curia.