(ZENIT News / Rome, 12.03.2024).- On Thursday, February 29, Pope Francis met with Father Andrzej Komorowski, Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), and confirmed that they can celebrate Mass in Latin according to the Tridentine Rite.
The private meeting between the Holy Father and Father Komorowski, Abbot Benoît Paul-Joseph, and Abbot Vincent Ribeton, was held in the Vatican on February 29, 2024 by invitation of Pope Francis at the request of the FSSP.
The Fraternity issued a statement about the meeting explaining that the priests expressed to the Pontiff “the difficulties they have faced” in implementing the Pontifical Decree of February 11, 2022. The Pope confirmed to the FSSP the right to celebrate Mass “in keeping with the typical editions of the Liturgical Books, namely, the Missal, the Ritual, the Pontifical and the Roman Breviary, in use in the year 1962.
The Catholic Church changed the Rite of the Mass established by the Council of Trent with the liturgical reform of Vatican Council II, and established a new liturgy that makes possible the use of the vernacular languages over Latin and facilitates the faithful’s participation in the Rites.
The FSSP was constituted by the Holy See on July 18, 1988 as a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right. Pope John Paul II granted it canonical status.
The FSSP’s charism is focused on the celebration of the Mass and of the Sacraments according to the Tridentine Mass in Latin, also called the Traditional Mass or Usus Antiquior. The Fraternity’s leaders needed to clarify matters with the Pope because they work in 85 pastoral endeavours throughout France and in 249 premises of 149 dioceses worldwide, where they celebrate Mass in the old Rite and some Prelates, particularly in France, have tried to restrict or rescind the permissions for these celebrations, as Bishops have the faculty to prohibit the Traditional Rite in Latin in their diocese.
Some FSSP parishes have witnessed great growth and the attraction of young people converted to the Faith. Confusion arose over the general dispositions of the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes on the use of the old Liturgical Books, on which the Fraternity’s origins and charism are based, causing difficulties in their pastoral work.
On December 17, 2023, for instance, Bishop Laurent Dognin, of the diocese of Quimper in Brittany, announced in a letter thar he “would put an end to the agreement that unites the diocese with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter,” due to the “irreversible tensions” that arose in the diocesan community.
Pope Benedict XVI allowed all priests to celebrate Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962 without their Bishops’ permission; he did so in the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum of 2007. Traditionis Custodes reversed this permission and stated that it was the “exclusive competence” of the Bishop to authorize Traditional Masses in Latin in each diocese.
In a press release, the FSSP states that “the Pope was very understanding and invited the Fraternity of Saint Peter to continue building ecclesial communion ever more fully through its own charism.”
Twelve priests and 20 seminarians founded the FSSP, who previously belonged to the Fraternity of Saint Pius X of French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. They separated from it when Lefebvre was excommunicated by Pope John Pail II in 1988, for ordaining four Bishops against the express prohibition of the Holy See.
The FSSP’s first private audience with Pope Francis took place on February 4, 2022, to request clarifications on the implementation of Traditionis Custodes. The Holy Father told them that he was “very impressed by the focus adopted by their Founders, their desire to remain faithful to the Roman Pontiff and their confidence in the Church.”
During the audience on February 29 of this year, “the Pope made it clear that Institutes, such as the Fraternity of Saint Peter, are not affected by the general dispositions of the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes, given that the use of the old Liturgical Books is at the origin of their existence and is provided for in their Constitutions,” points out the press release.
The FSSP has grown and has 368 priests, 22 deacons and 179 seminarians. The average age of its members is 39. It’s present in 146 dioceses, celebrates Mass in 246 places and directs 48 parishes.
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