A New Traditionalist Institute


Catholic World News reports here that the Vatican has approved the establishment of another clerical institute devoted to the Roman Rite: the Institute of the Good Shepherd. There is much more on the new Institute at Rorate Cæli here, here,, here, and here. Much of it is in French but there is some English. Fr Zuhlsdorf provides some more Engish here (and, in a pinch, there's always Babelfish).

In my occasionally humble opinion, Rorate Cæli is correct that this will have no particular impact on either the FSSP or the ICR. I would guess, though, that it might have some impact on negotiations between the FSSPX and the Vatican. The FSSPX has always resented these various institutes that seem to take from their constitutency. It seems to me that Fr Zuhlsdorf is right on the money when he says that "(t)he fact that this group is for former SSPXers suggests that it is not going to be accepting new candidates who were not in the SSPX. Thus, this is aimed squarely at the SSPX.

and

"Given the fact of the plenary of the SSPX and the contact Bp. Fellay had with Pope Benedict XVI, it strikes me that His Holiness believes that there is enough discontent in the SSPX, or enough harmony with the positions of the former SSPX priests founding this new institute, that it was time to "strike while the iron is hot" so to speak."

It seems so to me, too.

FWIW.