Pope Leo meets with FSSP at Fraternity’s request

[Stone]

Pope Leo meets with FSSP at Fraternity’s request
The meeting came after the head of the Vatican’s liturgy office issued a document to cardinals justifying the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM).



Pope Leo XIV arrives to attend an ecumenical and interreligious meeting in Martyrs’ Square alongside religious leaders on December 1, 2025, in Beirut, Lebanon
Adri Salido/Getty Images

Jan 20, 2026
(LifeSiteNews [Emphasis mine]) — Pope Leo XIV met with the Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), a society dedicated to offering the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), on Monday at the FSSP’s request.

Leo received Father John Berg, the FSSP’s superior general, and Father Josef Bisig, one of the founders of the Fraternity, in a private audience only 30 minutes long, according to the FSSP.

The meeting came almost two weeks after the head of the Vatican’s liturgy office issued a document to cardinals justifying the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass, in which Cardinal Arthur Roche stated that “we cannot go back” to the 1962 Missale Romanum, the TLM.

The audience was an opportunity to help explain to Leo the “foundation and history of the Fraternity,” and its “various forms of apostolate,” as well as to recall its “proper law and charism,” the FSSP reported.

The society priests also saw the audience as a chance to “evoke any misunderstandings and obstacles that the Fraternity encounters in certain places and to answer questions from the Supreme Pontiff.”

Vatican journalist Diane Montagna shared that the meeting was at the FSSP’s request.

In its communiqué on the audience, the FSSP encouraged Catholics to “pray fervently during the 30-days novena of preparation for the renewal of its consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on February 11.

The FSSP was founded in 1988 as a break-off group from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) by 12 priests, led by Fr. Bisig. It was established months later as a Society of Apostolic Life by Pope John Paul II. As a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical right, the FSSP is directly under the authority of the pope via the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The central charism of the FSSP is to offer the traditional Mass and sacraments, and the Fraternity has “chosen St. Peter as their special patron in order to express their gratitude, filial love, and loyalty to the Supreme Pontiff.”