The Vatican held a purification rite after the desecration of the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican hosted a solemn ceremony of “reparation,” a penitential rite of atonement after the cathedral’s high altar was desecrated. The rite was commissioned by Pope Leo XIV, who expressed deep shock over the incident.

According to Sedmitza.Ru, the ceremony was led by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the cathedral’s protopresbyter, on October 13, 2025. During the penitential procession, he sprinkled the altar with holy water and fumigated it with incense to symbolically cleanse the holy place. Special attention was paid to prayers for forgiveness for the sacrilege committed.

The reason for the ritual was an egregious incident that occurred three days earlier, on October 10. An unknown man climbed onto the “Altar of Confession,” located under Bernini’s famous canopy, and urinated on it in front of numerous visitors. The offender was immediately arrested by Vatican security.

This act of vandalism was the second case of desecration of the main shrine of the Catholic world in less than a year. In February of the same year, another man damaged part of the altar by smashing candelabras. Earlier, in June 2023, a Polish citizen staged a protest by stripping naked at the altar.