Dear Members and Friends of the Saint Gregory Society,

Today, 11 January 2026,  marks the 40th anniversary of the return of the Traditional Latin Mass to New Haven on the Feast of the Holy Family in 1986, under the terms of the indult Quattuor abhinc annos, issued by Pope St. John Paul II in 1984.

Under the terms of that indult, the later motu proprio Ecclesia Dei afflicta of 1986, and the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum issued by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, the traditional Latin Mass was regularly celebrated in New Haven, on Sundays and Holy Days: first at Sacred Heart Church until 2009, and later at St. Stanislaus Church until January of 2024. On the 14th of that month, the celebration of the Traditional Liturgy was most regrettably suppressed by His Excellency Leonard P. Blair, Archbishop of Hartford. This was at the behest of the late Pope Francis according to his motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, with its shocking reversal of the edict of his immediate predecessor.

From its inception, the two-fold mission of the Saint Gregory Society has been to support the local celebration of the Traditional Liturgy in the New Haven community, and to promote its worldwide preservation and use. Although the first aspect of our mission is for the present time frustrated, we remain committed and active in support of its second aspect.

We therefore urge all who are devoted to the Traditional Liturgy to pray to God fervently and assiduously that Pope Leo XIV and all who are entrusted at present with charge over Holy Mother Church’s Sacred Liturgy, will restore to faithful Catholics throughout the world regular access to the august instrument of the worship of God that is the Traditional Roman Liturgy.

Members and friends of the Saint Gregory Society should rejoice that His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Burke once again will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on October 25 in a return to a prior custom, suspended since 2022, of an annual pilgrimage  to Rome of Catholics devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass.

Cardinal Burke will celebrate the Mass, at the Altar of the Chair St. Peter on the second day of the October 24–26 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. Now in its 14th year, this pilgrimage, will bring well over a thousand people “ad Petri Sedem” (“to the See of Peter”) to give “testimony of the attachment that binds so many faithful throughout the whole world to the traditional liturgy,”

A champion of the Traditional Latin Mass and one of the most prominent critics among the hierarchy during the pontificate of the late Pope Francis, under whom he fell conspicuously out of favor in recent years. In July, Cardinal Burke received a letter of congratulation from Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his priestly ministry, and on August 22 he met with Pope in a private audience.

The Mass on Oct. 25 will be preceded by a half-mile procession from the Basilica of Sts. Celso and Giuliano to St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Officers of the Saint Gregory Society exhort our members and friends to “storm heaven” with prayers during the coming days before this pilgrimage that Our Lord will move Holy Father Leo to remove the restrictions on the celebration of the traditional liturgy.