Pope Francis has decreed that the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), a group of traditionalist catholic clergy originally part of the schismatic Lefevbrist movement, can continue to celebrate Mass and other sacraments according to the Tridentine Rite.
The decree, which was signed by Francis on February 11 and appeared on the FSSP website this week, constitutes an exemption from the “motu proprio” the pope issued last July to strictly curtail use of the pre-Vatican II liturgy.
Father Benedict Paul-Joseph, superior of the fraternity’s French district, called the new decree a ‘great relief’.
The decree states that members of FSSP have “the faculty to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass and to carry out the sacraments and other sacred rites as well as to fulfil the Divine Office according to the typical editions of the liturgical books, namely the Missal, the Ritual, the Pontifical and the Roman Breviary in force in the year 1962”.
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