What is Happening to the Most Sacred Altar in Christendom?
Recently in the heart of the Church on the very papal altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, we have seen a number of repeated sacrileges. The blog Silere non possum (Silence No More) reports of these as follows on October 13, 2025:
A Disturbing Sequence of Sacrilege
On Friday, October 10, 2025, St. Peter’s Basilica became the scene of yet another outrageous act. While the faithful were crossing the Holy Door and attending Mass, a man climbed onto the Altar of the Confession, beneath Bernini’s baldachin, stripped completely naked, and attempted to urinate before the astonished congregation. A blasphemous and profane act—the third in two years—revealing a failure in safeguarding both the security and dignity of the sacred place.
The first incident occurred on June 1, 2023, when a man, naked and bearing the words “Save children of Ukraina” on his back, climbed onto the main altar.
The second, on February 7, 2025, involved a man of Romanian origin who overturned six candlesticks and damaged the altar; in that case, no rite of reparation was performed. (cf. https://silerenonpossum.com/en/ritoriparazione13ottobre2025-sanpietro/)[1]
Apart from the lack of proper security and care for the Basilica mentioned by Silere non possum, Canon902.org proposes one of the deeper causes of this tragedy is the modern rite of concelebration. Fr. Joseph N. Tylenda, SJ writes about St. Peter’s Basilica in his book The Pilgrim’s Guide to Rome’s Principal Churches: “The papal altar does not stand directly beneath the dome’s center but directly above the tomb of St. Peter, as did the altar in the original basilica. The altar overlooks the confession, and faces east. The present altar dates from 1594, when Clement VIII had the earlier altars of St. Gregory the Great (590-604) and Callistus II (1119-112) enclosed within it. Only the pope, or the cardinal whom he deputes, may celebrate at this altar.”[2] The papal altar of St. Peter’s is special, that is, sacred and reserved for the pope. It is special in its origins and in its usage. The world’s biggest and best basilica is built for and around this very altar. Thus this setting aside of the papal altar makes perfect sense. It is an ancient tradition and practice that follows from the very construction of the altar being built upon the old altars and the tomb of the first pope St. Peter. In a sense the popes did not make new altars but rather built upon the old ones, extending them, building them up and beautifying them. If one takes a tour of the necropolis under St. Peter’s, one learns that there is actually another more ancient altar under St. Gregory’s. All this rightly makes the altar of St. Peter’s the most special altar of sacrifice in Christendom built literally upon the bones of St. Peter. “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church” (Matt. 16:18) is written around the dome above this altar.
The same principles hold with many other things in the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Among other things, only the Pope can wear the Tiara, sit on the papal throne, wear the papal ring, and so on. In a similar way, only bishops can wear a miter, hold a crosier, and sit on the cathedra in his Cathedral.
In a number of ways, however, all that changed when Pope Paul VI had the first concelebrated Mass offered on this very altar on September 14, 1964, at the beginning of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council. No longer was it the Pope only who was at the altar, but twenty-four bishops in addition. It is very important for us to remember this was the first of the Vatican II liturgical reforms that was to be implemented or experimented. As St. Thomas teaches, what is first in any order is the cause of everything which follows it.[3] What followed? Many a priest in the new rite did things only bishops could do heretofore. To name a few: the modern priest now wears the stole hanging straight (not crossed) when offering the Mass, just as the bishop has always done. The modern priest now presides at a chair (oftentimes cathedra-like in appearance) and offers the prayers from there just as the bishop used to do in the pontifical rites. In other words, a leveling has occurred here. What was before special and reserved for special events and certain prelates, is now practiced by many and has become common practice. It started with the Pope and bishops offering Mass together on an altar that was once reserved. Authentic hierarchy has been lost with concelebration. Why, then, are we surprised to see laymen jump up on this very altar of St. Peter’s and act so perversely? To put it another way, everyone knows of the various and ubiquitous Eucharistic sacrileges seen in the New Rite of Mass. One of the reasons is simply we have made His Majesty too equal to us… too much on our level. If His Majesty can be treated so, why not jump up on the altar and make a scene, making use of God’s Altar to serve our own purposes? Thus has God allowed this sacrilege (i.e., the desecration of the Church’s holiest altar and in many ways the second holiest grave[4] after Our Lord’s Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem) to put on display before the whole world to show us very clearly that something has been lost![5] Until we re-establish the hierarchy of old, not only in the Liturgy but in everything we do, we should expect to see more of the same and, sad to say, expect even worse. The only remedy to prevent this is to return to the usus antiquor.
[1] For more articles on this event cf. https://www.silerenonpossum.com/en/sanpietroleonexiv-ordinariparazione/
[2] Joseph N. Tylenda, SJ, The Pilgrim’s Guide to Rome’s Principal Churches, pp. 11-12.
[3] St. Thomas Aquinas, ST, III, 5, 1 in corp. and ad 3.
[4] To urinate on someone’s grave has long been held as a form of desecration (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_desecration ). Some have filed charges against such acts (https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/modell-family-wants-to-press-charges-against-grave-urinator).
[5] Sad and somewhat fearful to ask, can it be that all of these incidents of sacrilege and desecration combined, along with the Amazonian idol’s bowl placed on the altar by Pope Francis, are emblematic of the faith being practiced by our ruling prelates? Instead of the “unfeigned faith” required by St. Paul (cf. 1Tim 1:5), we have lots of feigned faith today. Thus the man standing naked on the altar about politics, the man destroying the candle sticks (our light is not really shining with the Amazonian idol taking its place), and the man urinating on what the prelates of our day are willing to defend and promote. Can it be that the devil is being allowed to show us what we look like at this time?