The Vatican’s Secretariat of State has issued an instruction regarding the celebration of Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, suppressing Masses said by a priest by himself, and restricting the celebration of the Traditional Latin form of Mass in the Latin rite to one altar in the crypt of the basilica, the symbolism of which cannot be ignored.

The instruction comes from the First Section of the Secretariat of State, which deals with the general affairs of the church and is headed by Venezuelan-born Archbishop Peña Parra. He is the third-highest ranking official in the Roman Curia and is known as the “substitute” (or chief of staff).

Parra wrote that the Lenten season “invites us to return to the Lord with all our heart by giving greater centrality to listening to the Word of God and to the Eucharistic celebration,” reads the beginning of the instruction. “In this sense, wishing to ensure that the holy Masses in the Basilica of St. Peter’s are conducted in a climate of recollection and liturgical decorum, from now henceforth the following has been laid down.”

Parra implies that the usage of the extraordinary form, the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until Vatican II, is not intended to be the norm.

Parra was was the subject of controversy in 2019 after Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò revealed the cardinal had been accused of abusing seminarians and that Pope Francis had covered for Parra.

In many diocese around the world the Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass or Usus Antiquior, is experiencing a revitalization while other liturgies have become less popular.