Anyone know anything about the FSSP?

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(name removed by moderator),

The Church is going through a crisis, the sooner we can acknowledge that the sooner a real remedy to the poison modernism which is eating it can be applied.
 
First of all, I am very glad to hear that you are discerning a vocation to the priesthood! I too am a high school student discerning a vocation, and I love tradition/the TLM as well! To answer your question, as many people have already said- yes, the FSSP is in full communion with Rome. If you live in an area where they have a parish within your diocese feel free to try and reach out to them personally. You said that you do not attend the Latin Mass regularly, but I think that if you are strongly considering a vocation to the Fraternity it would be a great idea to start going as often as you can, and to also study/research the Latin Mass to understand it further. Even if you can’t go, there are TONS of videos on Youtube that will help guide your understanding.

But honestly, consider becoming a diocesan priest too. Remember, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, under Summorum Pontificum gave ALL priests the right to say the TLM without permission from their bishop, so you can still learn AND celebrate it as a diocesan priest (many diocesan priests say the TLM!). We really need more traditional young men who are willing to spearhead change in the mainstream church (the mainstream church being those who are not as accustomed to tradition/attend the ordinary form more regularly). As much as I love the FSSP and other TLM orders/societies of apostolic life, I don’t think the mainstream church will go anywhere if all our traditional young men just join the FSSP/TLM orders. In order to attract more young people in the mainstream church to tradition, we NEED more traditional young men in diocesan positions in order to influence the church to make the changes it so greatly needs nowadays.

I wish you luck in discerning your vocation and I’ll keep you in my prayers- please pray for me as well!
 
DeusEstBonus said:
But honestly, consider becoming a diocesan priest too. Remember, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, under Summorum Pontificum gave ALL priests the right to say the TLM without permission from their bishop, so you can still learn AND celebrate it as a diocesan priest (many diocesan priests say the TLM!)
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And also, many diocesan seminaries are starting to teach their seminarians the Extraordinary Form, or at least offering it as an elective.
 
midori said:
I do want to say one of the FSSP priests once mentioned that they were only allowed to say Mass and hear Confessions. I don’t think they were authorized to marry people during a Tridentine Mass— which was odd, because marriage is the one sacrament that a couple conducts upon itself, and the priest is the witness. So I may be misremembering. But they couldn’t Baptize, or offer other sacraments.
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This depends on whether the FSSP is at a Parish or at a chapel. The FSSP Parish near me can do baptisms and marriages because the FSSP is a PARISH and the priest is a Pastor.

The faculties for Baptisms and Marrages are typically given to pastors… who can give them to his assistants.

But if the FSSP Church is a chapel, then there is no pastor, only a chaplain / rector. So they are typically not granted facilities because Parish priests (pastors) are usually the only ones who are granted faculties for marriage and baptism (Deacons and assistant pastors share or borrow the pastor’s faculties).

I hope I’m making sense.

(NOTE: I’m not sure if I have this 100% correct from Canon Law, but I you should get the general idea)
 
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Yes, this depends on the Diocese and the seminaries they attend. Some Seminaries are really awesome
 
CTBcin said:
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DeusEstBonus:
But honestly, consider becoming a diocesan priest too. Remember, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, under Summorum Pontificum gave ALL priests the right to say the TLM without permission from their bishop, so you can still learn AND celebrate it as a diocesan priest (many diocesan priests say the TLM!)
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And also, many diocesan seminaries are starting to teach their seminarians the Extraordinary Form, or at least offering it as an elective.
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Cool!!! Do you know which ones? Or have a few examples?
 
In addition to the FSSP, there is Canons Regular of St. John Cantius.

The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius focus on beauty and celebrate BOTH the Extraordinary Form and a very traditional Ordinary Form (with Latin).

To me, the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius are exactly what Diocesan Parishes & Priests should be like.

They are a newer order founded by the late Cardinal George of Chicago. They need more young men so they can establish houses in new Dioceses.

You can learn more about them here: https://www.canons-regular.org
 
OP, you don’t know very much at all about the FSSP if you don’t even know if they are in communion with the Church. There is a fair amount online about them. I am sure that you could visit their seminary in Nebraska or, at least, one of their parishes.
 
I’m an adult convert, but, I’ve been Catholic longer than you have been alive. I’ve traveled this nation and around the world. Never, not once, have I see a parish without a tabernacle. Kneelers are a modern innovation, you will not find a kneeler in many of the amazing Churches of Europe, I did not see any (outside of the confessional kneelers) in St Peter’s.

My advice is to stop watching/reading much of the “outrage” stirring internet and focus more on humility, prayer, sacrifice, love.
 
MattBalkus said:
Well, look at the classic American parish Church today. There are no tabernacles, no kneelers, no altar rails, etc…
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🤨 I love the TLM, but a parish with no tabernacle nor kneeler? There are plenty that don’t have altar rails, sure, but I’ve never seen a parish without kneelers and especially one without a tabernacle (though some parishes put them in weird places)! I’m pretty sure that a parish without a tabernacle is in violation of a major rule, though I’m not sure which one or where it might be. I’m not sure a Catholic Church without a tabernacle is part of a “classic” American parish.
 
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Mt. St. Mary’s in Cincinnati does for sure. I think the Pontifical College Josephenum in Columbus and Sacred Heart seminary in Detroit also offer it. I’m not as familiar with seminaries on the east and west coast, however.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Kneelers are a modern innovation, you will not find a kneeler in many of the amazing Churches of Europe
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I think a lot of the churches in Europe don’t have pews either, do they?

I haven’t been to Europe, but I have visited the St. John the Divine Episcopalian Cathedral in New York- where they are looking to duplicate the construction of the European cathedrals of the middle ages.

They have removable chairs only in the nave.
 
Pews are a recent innovation in the church buildings from the 16th century when the sermon became the most important part of service and a lot longer than it used to be. Thank the protestants who brought the pews into the church buildings! The Orthodox and most of the Eastern Catholic still stand for the entire liturgy. Western used to as well.

I haven’t been able to find out when kneelers were included in the Western Catholic church buildings but it seems like it is fairly “recent”. If there are no kneelers then why not do penance on the floor kneeling as a lot of Catholics have done for centuries before you were born.
 
Most of the side chapels have pews from what I have seen. Chairs are usually brought out into the nave on Sundays and major celebrations. In some, there are pews in the front half of the nave and chairs are used in the back. Some of the side chapels are as big as my parish church building!

In my diocese, we have added kneelers to pews or had new pews made with kneelers when we have bought former protestant church buildings. In some parishes, there are chairs with or without kneelers.
 
Even Cardinal Arinze, former Prefect of the Curial Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments, acknowledged in one of his Q&A sessions that many parishes were extracting their kneelers from the nave, only leaving the options to stand or sit during the consecration. He proceeded to say that those who extracted the kneelers are doing damage to the Catholic community. If you didn’t see a Church without them, you must’ve been looking in the right (traditional) places.
 
Cardinal Arinze has his opinions. (It is good form to link to the text of these statements when presenting them)
 
cathapolo said:
Commentor

On the contrary, the fact that the SSPX like FSSP has distanced itself from many of the diocesan novelties means precisely it has been able to maintain the true sense of the Catholic faith.
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The SSPX website goes to extremes to criticize FSSP, more than they criticize any other religious or secular group. SSPX accurately recognizes FSSP has significant differences from SSPX.
 
commenter said:
The SSPX website goes to extremes to criticize FSSP, more than they criticize any other religious or secular group. SSPX accurately recognizes FSSP has significant differences from SSPX.
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To be fair, it was the FSSP that split from the FSSP. I’m sure they’re basically viewed as sell-outs.
 
Commentor,

Again, those are two different issues. Yet, in practice, my point holds true. The FSSP priest often have little to do with many of the conciliar realities in the Diocese they are in.

While the FSSPX and FSSP on a formal level may have differing views regarding the view on the Novus Ordo and the Conciliar reforms, (often in practice many of the FSSP priests would agree wholeheartedly with the SSPX position) what they both agree upon is the reality that ‘something is rotten in Denmark’. - They both agree that the Novus Ordo is not the preferred rite of liturgy and that the conciliar reforms as a whole have not been good for the Church and that there is a crisis at present in the Church. They do differ as to solution, and the SSPX try to make clear it clear that their position/view on the crisis is not that of the FSSP.

I for one am thankful for that honesty and clarity on this point. Regardless of how anyone may view that.The honesty and integrity is greatly appreciated. Yet for all that, they certainly have both got an essential grasp of the basic problems facing the Church today and work for the restoration of the ancient faith.

Point in fact: -

https://www.veritascaritas.com/ - sermons by a priests of the FSSP, you could not really tell from the sermons alone that he was not an SSPX priest.

The same could be said of the great sermons of Fr. Chad Rippenger - (a former FSSP priest) NameBright - Coming Soon

In general, when you attend, Masses at a SSPX Chapel or that of a FSSP chapel, the sermons are often clear cut Catholic doctrine without compromise, solidly grounded in the teachings of St. Thomas, who forms the greater part of their theological and philosophical formation. Which is something anyone who is looking from some sanity in our times is more than grateful to have.
 
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