Man urinates on the central altar of St. Peter's Basilica

A man climbed up to the central altar in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Italy, during Friday Mass at 9:30 a.m. and urinated on the Altar of Confession.

Videos circulating on social media show the act, which shocked the crowds and caught the attention of Vatican security and plainclothes gendarmerie agents, who quickly removed the man from the sacred altar. He is now detained and under the care of Italian authorities, with no further details known at this time.

????A man urinated on altar in St Peters Basilica❗️ pic.twitter.com/Ts2U1ylMKK

— Luca???????? (@veritcatholicam) October 11, 2025

Passing through the turnstiles surrounding the high altar, the man quickly climbed the steps and, reaching one of the most sacred altars in the Catholic Church, dropped his pants and offended millions by urinating there. It wasn't just the tourists and believers present at St. Peter's Basilica who were scandalized. Pope Leo XIV was also shocked to learn of the act, considered sacrilege by Catholics, reports the website Silerenon possum, the first media outlet to report the news. And he wasn't pleased.

According to the same source, after seeing the video, Leo XIV met with Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, in a meeting that was "tempestuous, to say the least," reports Corriere della Sera, citing sources close to the Pope. "Dismayed and distressed," Leo XIV ordered the cardinal to celebrate a penitential rite "as quickly as possible" to "restore the sanctity of St. Peter's Basilica and ask God's forgiveness for the offense committed," with the church temporarily closed to the faithful.

The altar's "purification," however, only took place around 12:30 p.m. this Monday, a delay that likely displeased the Pope, given his urgent personal request. However, the Vatican has yet to publicly comment on the matter.

This wasn't the first time Catholicism's most sacred altar—which symbolizes papal authority, as it sits directly over the tomb of Peter, the apostle considered by the Catholic Church to be the first pope, and where only the pontiff can celebrate Mass—has been desecrated. In fact, this is the third sacrilegious act to have occurred there in two years. On June 1, 2023, a young man ascended the main altar completely naked, showing only black drawings on his back in which he prayed for the salvation of Ukrainian children, drawing attention to the war that broke out in the European country with the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Earlier this year, on February 7th, a Romanian man attacked the altar and, while shouting obscene phrases, threw six 19th-century candelabras to the ground. Once again, the man was quickly detained by the authorities present, but there is no record of Leo XIV's predecessor, the popular Pope Francis, ever ordering any purification rite.

Text edited by Dulce Neto