The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) has announced that it will receive an apostolic visitation from the Vatican.

In a communique published on 26 September, the FSSP states that it “has recently been informed by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life of the opening of an apostolic visitation of the Fraternity.”

The FSSP emphasises: “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 organisation notes that the last ordinary apostolic visit of the Fraternity was undertaken in 2014 by the Ecclesia Dei Commission, and that the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has been in charge of the FSSP and other former Eccelsia Dei institutes for the past three years.

The FSSP is an international community of priests, under the authority of the Holy See, which celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass in churches all around the world.

Pope Francis’s papacy has seen a number of disciplinary actions against traditional and conservative clergy, including the introduction of restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

In November 2023, Bishop Joseph Strickland was personally removed from his diocese in Texas by Pope Francis following an apostolic visitation. Shortly afterwards, Strickland claimed that one of the reasons for his removal was his not implementing Traditionis custodes, an apostolic letter issued motu proprio by the Pope in 2021 that restricted the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.