Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri | |
Abbreviation | FSSP |
---|---|
Formation | July 18, 1988 |
Founder | Fr. Josef Bisig |
Type | Society of apostolic life of pontifical right (for men) |
Headquarters | Maison Saint Pierre Canisius, Fribourg, Switzerland |
Coordinates | 46°48′17″N7°09′37″E / 46.804796°N 7.160385°E |
Membership | 583 [1] • 386 priests • 201 seminarians (2024) |
Superior General | Fr. John Berg |
Website | fssp |
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (Latin : Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri; FSSP) is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians. It is in communion with the Holy See. It was founded in 1988 by 12 former members of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) who left following the Écône consecrations, which resulted in the SSPX bishops being excommunicated by the Holy See.
Headquartered in Switzerland, the society maintains two international seminaries: the International Seminary of St. Peter in Wigratzbad-Opfenbach, Bavaria, Germany, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska, United States. The society is officially recognized by the Holy See and has 368 priests who celebrate the Tridentine Mass in locations in 147 worldwide dioceses.
According to canon law, the FSSP is a clerical society of apostolic life of pontifical rite. [2] It is not, therefore, an institute of consecrated life and members take no religious vows, but are instead bound by the same general laws of celibacy and obedience as diocesan clergy and, in addition, swear an oath as members of the society. [2] The fraternity's pontifical-rite status means that it has been established by the Pope and is answerable only to him in terms of its operation (through the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; prior to January 17, 2019, through the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei), rather than to local bishops. [3] A local bishop still governs the fraternity's work within his respective diocese.[ citation needed ] In this sense its organization and administrative reporting status are similar to those of religious orders of pontifical right (for example, the Jesuits or Dominicans).
On 28 September 2024, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life informed the FSSP that it had opened an apostolic visitation. According to the Fraternity, this is intended to "enable the Dicastery to know who we are, how we are doing and how we live, so as to provide us with any help we may need." [4]
The FSSP consists of priests and seminarians who intend to pursue the goal of Christian perfection according to a specific charism, which is to offer the Mass and other sacraments according to the Roman Rite as it existed before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. [5] Thus, the fraternity uses the Roman Missal, the Roman Breviary, the Pontifical (Pontificale Romanum), and the Roman Ritual in use in 1962, the last editions before the revisions that followed the Council.
The 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum had authorized use of the 1962 Roman Missal by all Latin Church priests as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite without limit when celebrating Mass "without a congregation". [6] Its use for Mass with a congregation was allowed with the permission of the priest in charge of a church for stable groups attached to this earlier form of the Roman Rite, provided that the priest using it was "qualified to do so and not juridically impeded" (as for instance by suspension). [7] That was abrogated by the 2021 motu proprio Traditionis custodes that emphasized deference towards the Mass of Paul VI and added restrictions to which clergy could perform the Roman Rite according to the pre-Vatican II form. [8] [9]
On 4 February 2022, two priests of the fraternity were received by Pope Francis in private audience, who subsequently issued a decree confirming that the FSSP could continue to celebrate the traditional liturgy publicly in their own churches or oratories, or anywhere else with the consent of the local ordinary. [10] [11] The decree was dated 11 February 2022, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and coincidentally the same day that the FSSP consecrated themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary after a nine-day novena. [12] [13] On 29 February 2024, the Superior General of the FSSP, Fr. Andrzej Komorowski, was received in private audience by Pope Francis, who assured them that the FSSP would continue to enjoy the right to celebrate the traditional liturgy. [14] [15]
Following from its charism, the fraternity's mission is twofold: to sanctify each priest through the exercise of his priestly function, and to deploy these priests to parishes. [2] [16] As such, they are to celebrate the sacraments, catechize, preach retreats, organize pilgrimages, and generally provide a full sacramental and cultural life for lay Catholics who are likewise drawn to the rituals of the 1962 missal. [2] In order to help complete its mission, the fraternity has built its own seminaries with the goal of forming men to serve the fraternity.
For the honour and glory of the holy Catholic Church, for the consolation of the much troubled faithful, and for the peace of their conscience, the undersigned, members until now of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, declare with profound regret over the illicit consecration of bishops on 30 June [1988] that they have remained within the Catholic Church as pars sanior of this same Fraternity, and that they have but one desire: to be able to live as a religious society in this Church and place themselves at her service under the authority, of course, of the Roman Pontiff, her supreme head.
— From the Declaration of Intention by the Founders (2 July 1988) [17]
The FSSP was established on July 18, 1988, at the Abbey of Hauterive, Switzerland, by twelve priests and twenty seminarians, led by Josef Bisig, all of whom had formerly belonged to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's Society of Saint Pius X; they were unwilling to follow that movement into what the Congregation for Bishops and Pope John Paul II declared to be a schismatic act and grounds for excommunication latae sententiae due to the consecration of four bishops without a papal mandate. [2] [18] [19] Fr. Josef Bisig became the fraternity's first superior general.
As of November 2023 [update] , the fraternity included 569 members: 368 priests, 22 deacons, and 179 non-deacon seminarians in 146 dioceses spread among Australia, Austria, Benin, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland, the United States, and Vietnam. The fraternity's membership represents 35 nationalities, and the average age of its members is 39. As of 2023 [update] , the lay Confraternity of Saint Peter had 9,546 members enrolled, who spiritually support the fraternity's charism. [20]
The FSSP's current superior general is Fr. John Berg, who was elected to a third (non-consecutive) term as superior general on July 9, 2024. [21] Former superiors general include:
The fraternity is divided into four districts: [22]
The fraternity has two seminaries:
Ezechiel House, a house of formation for first-year seminarians, exists in the city of Sydney, Australia. The Director of Ezechiel House is Fr. Duncan Wong.
In 2015, the fraternity established in Guadalajara, Mexico, Casa Cristo Rey, an apostolate which it plans to develop into a house of formation for first-year seminarians for native Spanish-speaking postulants. Presently, Casa Cristo Rey serves as a priestly discernment program for young men from Spain and Latin America. [23] In 2016 Casa Cristo Rey opened the Junipero Serra Spanish Institute, a program offering six or eight weeks of Spanish immersion for priests and seminarians. [24]
The Roman Missal is the title of several missals used in the celebration of the Roman Rite. Along with other liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the Roman Missal contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the most common liturgy and Mass of the Catholic Church.
The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in 1570 and published thereafter with amendments up to 1962. Celebrated almost exclusively in Ecclesiastical Latin, it was the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI.
Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Traditionalist Catholics particularly emphasize the Tridentine Mass, the Roman Rite liturgy largely replaced in general use by the post-Second Vatican Council Mass of Paul VI.
The Society of Saint Pius X is a canonically irregular traditionalist Catholic priestly fraternity founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Lefebvre was a leading traditionalist at the Second Vatican Council with the Coetus Internationalis Patrum and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers until 1968. The society was established as a pious union of the Catholic Church with the permission of François Charrière, the Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland.
Ecclesia Dei is the document Pope John Paul II issued on 2 July 1988 in reaction to the Ecône consecrations, in which four priests of the Society of Saint Pius X were ordained as bishops despite an express prohibition by the Holy See. The consecrating bishop and the four priests consecrated were excommunicated. John Paul called for unity and established the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei to foster a dialogue with those associated with the consecrations who hoped to maintain both loyalty to the papacy and their attachment to traditional liturgical forms.
Quattuor abhinc annos is the incipit of a letter that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments sent on 3 October 1984 to presidents of episcopal conferences concerning celebration of Mass in the Tridentine form.
The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was a commission of the Catholic Church established by Pope John Paul II's motu proprioEcclesia Dei of 2 July 1988 for the care of those former followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with him as a result of his consecration of four priests of his Society of St. Pius X as bishops on 30 June 1988, an act that the Holy See deemed illicit and a schismatic act. It was also tasked with trying to return to full communion with the Holy See those traditionalist Catholics who are in a state of separation, of whom the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is foremost, and of helping to satisfy just aspirations of people unconnected with these groups who want to keep alive the pre-1970 Roman Rite liturgy.
The Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney was established on 18 January 2002 by Pope John Paul II for traditionalist Catholic clergy and laity within the Diocese of Campos in Brazil. It is the only personal apostolic administration in existence, and the only canonically regular Catholic Church jurisdiction devoted exclusively to celebrating the Tridentine Mass in the area. Its current Apostolic Administrator is Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan.
Josef Meinrad Bisig, FSSP is a Swiss traditionalist Catholic priest, and co-founder and first superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. He was originally a member of the Society of Saint Pius X but left when founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illicitly consecrated four bishops.
John Marcus Berg is an American Traditionalist Catholic priest and current Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. He was elected on July 7, 2006 by the General Chapter of the Fraternity at its mother house in Wigratzbad, Germany, for a six-year term. Berg was elected to a second term at the fifth General Chapter in July 2012. Berg's second term concluded on July 9, 2018. On July 9, 2024, Berg was elected as Superior General for a third term.
Wigratzbad is a hamlet in the Lindau district of Bavaria, Germany. The village is 2 kilometres (1 mi) north of the town of Opfenbach, and 0.6 km (0.4 mi) south of Hergatz. It is situated on the ancient frontier of Bavaria and Swabia, a short distance from Germany's borders with Austria and Switzerland.
Joseph Nathaniel Perry is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1998 to 2023.
The Institute of the Good Shepherd is a Catholic society of apostolic life made up of traditionalist priests promoting the Tridentine Mass and other traditional sacraments, in full communion with the Holy See. As of 2024, the Institute has 62 priests, 5 deacons and 44 seminarians and is active in seven countries over three continents.
Father Axel Maußen, F.S.S.P. is a German Roman Catholic priest and was the district superior of the German-speaking district of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which covers the territories of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland until 2012.
George Gabet was formerly the district superior of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter in North America, and is now the pastor for the fraternity's apostolate in Dayton, Ohio.
Summorum Pontificum is an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued in July 2007. This letter specifies the circumstances in which priests of the Latin Church could celebrate Mass according to what Benedict XVI called the "Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962" and administer most of the sacraments in the form used before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.
The Roman Pontifical is the pontifical as used in Roman Rite liturgies of the Catholic Church. It is the liturgical book that contains the rites and ceremonies usually performed by bishops.
Andrzej Komorowski is a Polish traditionalist Catholic priest and the former Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. He was elected to a six-year term on 9 July 2018 by the General Chapter of the Fraternity at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary located in Denton, Nebraska. He was succeeded by John Berg on July 9, 2024.
Traditionis custodes is an apostolic letter issued motu proprio by Pope Francis, promulgated on 16 July 2021 regarding the continued use of pre-Vatican II rites. It restricts the celebration of the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Rite, sometimes colloquially called the "Latin Mass" or the "Traditional Latin Mass". The apostolic letter was accompanied by an ecclesiastical letter to the Catholic bishops of the world.
In the Catholic Church, preconciliar Latin liturgical rites coexist with postconciliar rites. In the years following the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI initiated significant changes. Some of Paul VI's contemporaries, who considered the changes to be too drastic, obtained from him limited permission for the continued use of the previous Roman Missal. In the years since, the Holy See has granted varying degrees of permission to celebrate the Roman Rite and other Latin rites in the same manner as before the council. The use of preconciliar rites is associated with traditionalist Catholicism.