Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, St Peter’s Basilica archpriest and Vatican City State vicar general, presided over a penitential rite of reparation at the main altar of the church on Monday following a serious act of desecration that occurred on Friday. Source: CNA.
After a penitential procession that began at 12.45pm local time, Cardinal Gambetti sprinkled the altar with holy water and incensed it to purify it.
The rite, attended by members of the chapter of the Vatican basilica, emphasised asking God for “forgiveness” for the desecration, Fr Enzo Fortunato, director of communications for St Peter’s Basilica said.
On Friday, October 10, a man whose identity has not been revealed, was arrested by security guards after he climbed onto the Altar of the Confession, located under Bernini’s baldachin, and urinated on it while tourists looked on in astonishment.
Pope Leo XIV expressed his consternation upon learning of the incident and asked Cardinal Gambetti to perform an act of reparation to restore the sanctity of the place and ask forgiveness for what had happened.
This is the second instance of desecration in St Peter’s Basilica in less than a year.
In February, a man severely damaged part of the main altar, breaking several candelabras. In June 2023, an individual of Polish origin stripped naked in the same place as a form of protest against the war in Ukraine.
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Cardinal presides over act of reparation in St Peter’s following desecration of altar (By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú and Walter Sánchez Silva, CNA)
