Vatican announces apostolic visit to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter

The Vatican announced this Monday, September 30, the carrying out of an Apostolic Visit to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), an institution whose priests celebrate the traditional Mass in Latin and which is in full communion with the Catholic Church.

The FSSP should not be confused with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius

The statement from the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life states that “it has called for an Apostolic Visit to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter on September 12, 2024, in order to deepen the knowledge of this Society of Apostolic Life. of pontifical right and to offer him the most appropriate help in the path of following Christ.”

The Apostolic Visit, indicates the text signed by the prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Joăo Braz de Aviz, and Sister Simona Brambilla, its secretary, “is carried out in the context of the process of accompaniment of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life erected at the time by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Deiwhich, with the Motu Proprio of Pope Francis Keepers of Tradition (July 16, 2021) have passed into the jurisdiction of this dicastery.”

In a published statement by the FSSP on September 26, the institution specified that “as the prefect of the Dicastery himself made clear to the Superior General and his assistants during a meeting in Rome, the visit does not originate in any problem of the Fraternity, but rather seeks to allow the “Dicastery to know who we are, how we are doing and how we live, to provide us with the help we may need.”

“The last ordinary apostolic visit to the Fraternity was carried out in 2014 by the Commission Ecclesia Dei”he added.

What is the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter – FSSP?

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) indicates in its website which is a society of apostolic life of pontifical right whose priests “work together for a common mission in the Catholic Church, under the authority of the Holy See.”

In its apostolate and mission, the FSSP uses “the liturgical books in force in 1962”, that is, it celebrates the traditional Mass in Latin, “as specified in its decree of erection of 1988, confirmed by decree of Pope Francis of February 11 of 2022”.

Indeed, in February 2022 the Holy Father authorized the FSSP to continue celebrating the traditional Mass in Latin, but also encouraged them to reflect on what was established in the motu proprio Keepers of Tradition. The authorization was later ratified by the Holy Father himself in March 2024.

The General House of the FSSP is in Freiburg (Switzerland) and has about 368 priests and 201 seminarians. In Mexico they have 8 members present, while 10 are in Chile and another 13 in Spain, and a group of 25 is in Canada. The largest presence in America is in the United States with 183 members.

What is the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei?

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was created by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1988 for dialogue with the Lefebvrists and to facilitate full communion with the Catholic Church of those “who were linked in different ways to the Fraternity founded by Archbishop (Marcel) Lefebvre”, the SSPX.

The Vatican also points out that “the Pontifical Commission exercises the authority of the Holy See over the different Institutes and religious Communities erected by it, which have as their own rite the ‘extraordinary form’ of the Roman Rite (traditional Mass in Latin) and preserve the preceding traditions of religious life.

Pope Francis abolished the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei on January 19, 2019.

The Vatican published the motu proprio Guardians of tradition from Pope Francis on July 16, 2021. The text almost completely restricts the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass (extraordinary form) or Tridentine Mass, that is, celebrated with the 1962 Missal.

Pope Francis thus modified the provisions given by Benedict XVI in his motu proprio the Supreme Pontiffwhich had liberalized the traditional Latin Mass in 2007.

Among the main provisions of Keepers of Tradition are that the bishop is the one who authorizes the celebration of the Eucharist with the 1962 Missal. If the priest who requests permission was ordained after the publication of the motu proprio, then it is up to the Vatican to give the authorization.

It is also established that new groups that celebrate the Tridentine Mass cannot be created and that any provision that does not conform to the motu proprio is abolished.