Background
Overview
Every Pentecost weekend thousands of Catholics walk about 100 km (60 miles) from Paris to Chartres Cathedral over three days, with the traditional Latin liturgy celebrated along the way. The pilgrimage is organised by the French lay association Notre-Dame de Chrétienté (Notre-Dame de Chrétienté), and its general chaplain, Abbé Jean de Massia, is a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (America/OSV News). The 2026 walk was billed as the 44th. It has become one of the most visible events of the canonically regular Latin Mass movement, and a point of attention for the Holy See and French bishops applying Traditionis custodes.
Attendance, 2023–2026
- 2023: about 16,000, then a record. The Tablet reported that organisers had to turn would-be marchers away (The Tablet; OSV News via The Tablet).
- 2024 (18–20 May): organisers expected a record 18,000 and closed registration earlier than the year before. Jean de Tauriers, then president, said capacity had been raised a little "in consultation with the civil and military authorities who ensure its security", but not enough to meet demand (OSV News via The Tablet). Later reports put turnout at around 18,000 (Catholic World Report/CNA).
- 2025 (7–9 June): registration closed within five days, leaving about 2,000 people on a waiting list. CNA reported 19,000 participants — the largest attendance in the event's four-decade history — with an average age of about 20 and more than 300 Masses over the three days. The closing Mass in Chartres Cathedral was celebrated by Abbé de Massia, with a homily by Bishop Philippe Christory of Chartres (National Catholic Register/CNA; Catholic World Report/CNA).
- 2026 (23–25 May): 14,000 places were taken within a day of registration opening (Catholic Herald). Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrated the closing Mass on 25 May (America/OSV News; InfoVaticana). CNA reported nearly 20,000 pilgrims from 22 countries, InfoVaticana about 20,000, and OSV News later reported a record crowd of more than 20,000 (Catholic World Report/CNA; InfoVaticana; Detroit Catholic/OSV News).
These figures are organisers' numbers as relayed by the press; no independent count was located. The growth has fed a wider discussion of young Catholics and the older liturgy (see Young Catholics and the Latin Mass).
Scrutiny under Traditionis custodes
According to CNA, the pilgrimage has been under heightened scrutiny since 2021. In July 2024 the Vatican prohibited the traditional Mass customarily celebrated at the end of a sister pilgrimage in Spain, at the shrine of Our Lady of Covadonga, and in December 2024 the French daily La Croix reported that the Dicastery for Divine Worship was reviewing whether the Chartres pilgrimage observed current norms (Catholic World Report/CNA). CNA also reported that before the 2025 walk Bishop Christory asked the organisers to allow priests who wished to do so to celebrate Mass in the current rite within his diocese, and that a decree of the French bishops' conference, issued with the Dicastery, required confessions to be heard with the reformed ritual (same source). The commentary site Nuntiatoria reported further directives on priests' permissions, which it attributed to the Dicastery (Nuntiatoria). The closing Mass in the cathedral was celebrated in the traditional rite in both 2025 and 2026, according to the reports above.
Reactions across traditionalist media
Traditionalist and conservative outlets have presented the growth as evidence of the older liturgy's appeal. InfoVaticana headlined its 2026 report "Twenty thousand pilgrims in Chartres: the unstoppable missionary force of the Traditional Mass" (InfoVaticana), and relayed Burke's homily under a headline quoting him as refusing to yield to discouragement or despair (InfoVaticana). The European Conservative called 2025 a "Dazzling Success" (The European Conservative), and Breitbart reported a "Record Number" of pilgrims (Breitbart). FSSPX.News, the news service of the Society of St. Pius X, described the pilgrimage as under threat from Traditionis custodes (FSSPX.News). Mainstream Catholic agencies — OSV News, CNA and the National Catholic Register — cover the pilgrimage each year (OSV News; National Catholic Register).
2026: the SSPX crisis and the Pope
The 2026 walk took place weeks before the Society of St. Pius X consecrated bishops without papal mandate (see SSPX consecrations 2026). OSV News reported that organisers stressed unity with the Pope. Philippe Darantière, the association's president since 2025, said relations between bishops and traditionalist priests had been difficult since Traditionis custodes, with some dioceses asking the FSSP to leave, but had recently calmed; he called Leo XIV's letter inviting bishops to welcome traditionalists a positive sign (America/OSV News). That message, sent in March 2026 to the French bishops' assembly in Lourdes and signed on the Pope's behalf by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, asked for concrete solutions to include Latin Mass Catholics generously while preserving communion (Crux; America).
After the consecrations, OSV News reported that French traditionalists in communion with Rome rallied behind Leo XIV and that Notre-Dame de Chrétienté had been asked to help prepare the papal visit to Paris (Detroit Catholic/OSV News). During that visit, on 25–28 September, Leo pressed for unity and dialogue with French traditionalists, according to Religion News Service (RNS).
What to watch
- Registration for 2027, and whether capacity can grow further.
- Any new norms from the Dicastery for Divine Worship or the French bishops on the pilgrimage's Masses and confessions.
- How relations between French traditionalists and their bishops develop after the papal visit (see Leo XIV and the Latin Mass).