The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is a traditionalist Catholicsociety of apostolic life for priests and seminarians which is in communion with the Holy See. The society was founded in 1988 under the leadership of 12 priests who were formerly members of the Society of Saint Pius X, another traditionalist organization, but were unwilling to remain part of it following the Écône consecrations, which resulted in its 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, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska, United States. The society is officially recognized by the Holy See and its priests celebrate the Tridentine Mass in locations in 124 worldwide dioceses.
Canonical status
According to canon law, the FSSP is a "Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right". 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. The fraternity's pontifical-right status means that it has been established by the Pope and is answerable only to him in terms of its operation, rather than to local bishops. A local bishop still governs the fraternity's work within his respective diocese. In this sense its organization and administrative reporting status are similar to those of religious orders of pontifical right.
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. Thus, the fraternity uses the Roman Missal, the Roman Breviary, the Pontifical, and the Roman Ritual in use in 1962, the last editions before the revisions that followed the Council. The 2007 motu proprioSummorum Pontificum has authorized use of the 1962 Roman Missal by all Latin Rite priests as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite without limit when celebrating Mass "without a congregation". Its use for Mass with a congregation is 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 is "qualified to do so and not juridically impeded". 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. As such, they are to celebrate the sacraments, catechise, 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. In order to help complete its mission, the fraternity has built its own seminaries with the goal of forming men to serve the fraternity.
Founding
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 excommunicationlatae sententiae due to the consecration of four bishops without a papal mandate. Josef Bisig became the fraternity's first superior general.
Organization
, the fraternity included 482 members: 320 priests, 17 deacons, and 145 non-deacon seminarians in 142 dioceses spread among Australia, Austria, Benin, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Switzerland, and the United States. The fraternity's membership represents 35 nationalities, and the average age of its members is 38. The lay Confraternity of Saint Peter enrolls 6 996 members who spiritually support the fraternity's charism.
The International Seminary of St. Peter in Wigratzbad-Opfenbach, in the German state of Bavaria, was established in 1988. It serves French and German-speaking seminarians. Its current rector is Abbé Patrick du Faÿ.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, in Denton, Nebraska, United States, was established in 1994 and serves English-speaking seminarians. Its current rector is Pater Josef Bisig.
Ezekiel House, a house of formation for first-year seminarians, exists in the city of Sydney, Australia. The Director of Ezechiel House is 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. In 2016 Casa Cristo Rey opened the Junipero Serra Spanish Institute, a program offering 6 or 8 weeks of Spanish immersion for priests and seminarians. Until 2012, the fraternity also operated an American boarding school: St. Gregory's Academy in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania.
