Vatican announces visitation of Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican dicastery charged with overseeing and assisting religious orders confirmed that it plans to conduct an apostolic visitation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which was founded in 1988 by traditionalist priests wanting to maintain the old liturgical rites while remaining in full communion with the pope.

In a statement released by the Vatican press office Sept. 30, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life said the purpose of the visitation is "to deepen understanding of this society of apostolic life of pontifical right and to offer it the most appropriate support in its journey of following Christ."

The dicastery noted that the fraternity previously had been under the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, set up for the pastoral care of Catholics attached to the pre-Vatican II Mass and liturgies, but Pope Francis closed the commission in 2019. The pope gave the dicastery for religious life responsibility for working with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in 2021.

A statement from the fraternity's headquarters in Fribourg, Switzerland, Sept. 26 had announced the visitation.

"As the Prefect of this Dicastery himself made clear to the Superior General and his assistants during a meeting in Rome, this visit does not originate in any problems of the Fraternity, but 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," the statement said.

In July, members of the fraternity's general chapter, meeting at their international seminary in Denton, Nebraska, elected U.S.-born Father John Berg as superior general.

According to statistics on the fraternity's website, as of Nov. 1, 2023, the fraternity had a total of 569 members, including 368 priests and 179 seminarians. In both groups, men from the United States constituted the largest nationality, followed by those from France.