Tremendous Growth of the Fraternity of St. Peter

They Grow and they Grow and they Grow

New statistical revelations, those which show the progressive development of the Priestly Society of St. Peter.

by Armin Schwibach


Rome (kath.net/as) The Priestly Society of St. Peter (FSSP) belongs to ecclesiastical realities, which is demonstrating tremendous growth. This was the finding of a statistical poll published on the 1st of October. The Society at this moment has 376 members (Priests: 223; Deacons: 8; Seminarians and Postulants in the first year: 145). The average age from the 34 nations shows an aggregate of 36.

The FSSP is in four continents, 16 Countries and 113 Diocese. They possess 48 canonically erected houses, 16 personal parishes and 197 Mass locations. They've shown to have ordained an average of 12 Priests per year.

The Priestly Society of St. Peter was founded on 18 July 1988 as a clerical society of Apostolic Life. This means it operates as a society of Catholics Priests without vows, which operates on a Mission in the world. The Mission is twofold according to the Society: first the education and consecration of Priests in the use of the traditional liturgy according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite; second is for these priests to take up pastoral efforts in their area, in the service of the Church.

In the year 2008 Pope Benedict XVI. erected a personal parish for the faithful, who are attached to the Old Mass. The Apostolate of the Society of St. Peter in Rome was at that moment settled in the small church of St. Gregory dei Moratori in the immediate vicinity of the mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis on the Tiber. The church was built in the first years of the 16th Century and is dedicated to St Gregory the Great -- Patron of Masons. It was built by the Brotherhood of Masons, to which belonged also the stucco workers, sculptors and relief painters, near the (destroyed during the renovation of the city) Tiber harbour "della Ripetta", where the manual laborers lived and worked in times past.

Already in the last years the Apostolate of the Society of St. Peter has experienced tremendous growth. the small church shows itself as more than unusual, especially as it is the faithful, predominantly of young people but also a growing number of baby buggies to make allowance for.

In the founding document of the Roman Personal Parish (dated from the Feast of Easter 2008) in accordance with Art. 10 of the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" the corresponding reads: "According to the request of the Cardinal Vicar, by order of the Holy Father, that in the central sector of Rome, in the 1st District, in a suitable church, namely in the church of SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini [...] should a personal parish be established to provide for the pastoral care of all traditional believers, who belong to the Diocese."

From the many Diocese in which the Society is active, the Roman Apostolate is the sixteenth worldwide and the first in Europe, which was established as a Personal parish. The parish churches of Ponte Sisto, of the Campo de' Fiori and Via dei Giubbonari (Piazza Trinità dei Pellegrini, 1; Pfarrei: Via dei Pettinari 36/A, I-00186 Rom; Tel: +39-0668300486; Email: trinita@fssp.it) were not only obliged to serve as a home for communities offering the Old Rite, rather they also have the task of providing a point of contact where pilgrims and students can learn and be immersed in the beauty and depth of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.


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Link to FSSP Video, here.