World News Updates from around the globe, with Paul Waddington

Priestly Fraternity of St Peter

Every November, the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter publishes statistics about its membership and activities. The latest information demonstrates the continued growth of the order.

There are now 342 priests incardinated into the order, with a further 24 associated in some way. There are also 22 deacons and 179 other seminarians below the grade of deacon. The average age of the membership, which includes priests and seminarians is 39.

During 2023, 14 seminarians were ordained to the priesthood, which is the average number in recent years. However, there is the expectation that the number of ordinations will increase over the coming years, as the numbers entering the seminary each year has increased since 2021 when Pope Francis issued his motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes. This year, the intake to their two seminaries, in the USA and in Bavaria, was at a record level.

The FSSP are active in 146 dioceses distributed in 16 countries around the world.

Italy

Shortly after it became known that Pope Francis intended to sanction the American Cardinal Raymond Burke by taking away his salary and charging a hefty rent for his home, the Italian daily newspaper, Il Foglio, published an article that was critical of this action and of Pope Francis more generally.

It posed the question: does this action not risk widening even further the rift that exists in American Catholicism, between a Church that follows the papal "agenda" and one that struggles even to recognize Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the successor of St Peter?

The article went on to suggest that the punishments meted out to Cardinal Burke and Bishop Strickland of Tyler would cause a “boomerang effect” not only among Catholics in the United States, but also among bishops throughout the world, who may be asking the question: What if tomorrow a pope of a different orientation does the same to those in vogue today?

USA

It was announced in January that Archbishop Leonard Blair of the Archdiocese of Hartford had ordered the discontinuation of Latin Masses at the church of St Stanislaus in New Haven in Connecticut. Latin Masses had been offered at this church for more than thirty years, and their ending is a bitter blow to the sizeable congregation that attended them, as well as to the St Gregory Society, which was responsible for introducing the Latin Mass into this part of Connecticut.

While there have been a number of cases in the USA where established Latin Masses have been shut down by local bishops responding to the provisions of Pope Francis’ motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, and subsequent instructions coming out of the Vatican, there have also been cases where American bishops have assisted in the setting up of new locations for the celebration of Mass in the older rite.

As an example, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest has, in recent months, established apostolates at two new US locations.

With the blessing of Archbishop Jerome Listecki, the Institute has been able to open another apostolate in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Masses are now being offered on Sundays and Holydays in the church of Saints Cyril & Methodius at Sheboygan, a small town some 60 miles to the north of Milwaukee. More recently, Bishop Robert McManus of the Diocese of Worcester invited the Institute to establish a new Oratory at the historic church of St Paul in Warren in the state of Massachusetts.

A survey recently conducted among priests in the USA by the Catholic University of America has revealed a dramatic decline in clergy who describe themselves as theologically either progressive or very progressive. This is matched by a similar increase in those who describe themselves as either conservative or orthodox.

The survey found that of priests ordained in 2020 or later, 85 percent described themselves as conservative or orthodox compared with less than five percent who regarded themselves as progressive and none at all who regarded themselves as very progressive. In contrast, the survey revealed that 68 percent of priests ordained in the late 1960s described themselves as progressive or very progressive, compared with 17 percent who described themselves as orthodox or traditional.