The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP) celebrated a week of ordinations and investiture from June 29 to July 3, as the Church sees an increase in traditional vocations.

In what the Institute called a “week of grace and blessings for the Institute and the Universal Church”, 63 seminarians and 11 oblates received clerical tonsure and minor orders from Bishop Emeritus Alain Castet of Luçon. Eight seminarians were ordained sub-deacons and six were ordained deacons by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.

On July 3, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke ordained the four new priests at the International Seminary Gricigliano, Tuscany. He has long supported the growth of the Institute through ordinations and invited the ICKSP to establish its first apostolate in the US.

With more than 100 seminarians, the Institute has followed in the growing popularity in traditional seminaries, particularly in the US, at a time when many national seminaries report dwindling numbers.

The Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP), another traditional society of priests recorded 162 seminarians last year. Furthermore, its 387 priests were an average age of 39 years.

Owing to an increase in younger American men joining the ICKSP formation programme as seminarians or oblates, it runs a pre-seminary programme located in several of its apostolates throughout the US.

In total, the Institute counts about 150 priests, clerical-oblates and affiliated clerics worldwide, operating churches, schools and missions in Africa.

The ICKSP states that it also has a growing number of non-ordained members that assist priests in their apostolic life, in a similar way to that of religious brothers.

“Our oblates, as we call them, are working with their respective talents and are members of the clergy in a broader sense through the minor orders they receive during their training,” the Institute said.