Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter - Mission and Charism

Mission and Charism

The F.S.S.P. 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 (Pontificale Romanum), and the Roman Ritual in use in that year, the last editions before the revisions that followed the Council.

The 2007 motu proprio Summorum pontificum has authorized this older form of the Mass, known as the Tridentine Mass, not only for the Fraternity, but for all Latin Rite priests as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.

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.