Basilica of the Holy House of Loreto, 28 July 2025: the bishops of the Marche region in Italy concelebrate Holy Mass to mark the Jubilee of the young people of their region. During the entrance procession, behind the deacon solemnly carrying the Gospel Book and following three priests without liturgical vestments, there are representatives of Eastern churches, probably non-Catholic, alongside a Catholic priest, a woman wearing a cassock from which the ecclesiastical collar is visible, (watch here at minute 5:50). She is likely a Lutheran pastor, whose name we do not know.
She then took her place in the presbytery (minute 10:45), again alongside a priest, where she remained throughout the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Archbishop of Pesaro-Urbino-Urbania-Sant’Angelo in Vado, Monsignor Sandro Salvucci. A worshipper present testified that during the consecration, the ‘minister’ extended her hand as a sign of concelebration. Unfortunately, the video of the celebration does not allow us to confirm this; however, when the bishop resumed the Eucharistic Prayer immediately after the acclamation of the faithful, she can be seen extending her hand again at 50:02, which makes it highly probable that she made the same gesture during the words of consecration.
Therefore, it seems that all the elements are present to suggest that the woman, evidently belonging to a Christian community that ‘does not have apostolic succession and does not recognise the sacramental dignity of priestly ordination’ (CIC, can. 908), attempted to disrupt the concelebration in the Holy House, in front of bishops and priests from the Marche region. This is one of the delicta graviora reserved for the judgement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (cf. Normæ de delictis Congregationi pro Doctrina Fidei reservatis, art. 3 § 1).
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