About the Institute of the Good Shepherd

The Institute of the Good Shepherd is a congregation of priests and seminarians dedicated to serving the Church by the transmission of the traditional latin liturgy and by teaching and preaching catholic doctrine, in fidelity to the Church's Tradition and in obedience to the Church's Magisterium.

 

We are a “Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right”. “Society of Apostolic Life” means that we are secular priests like diocesans: we do not take vows, but we live together in small communities following our Statutes. “Of Pontifical Right” means that we are directly under the pope.

 

The Institute was founded in 2006 under the Pontificate of Benedict XVI. Our Statutes state that “the liturgical rite proper to the Institute” is the roman rite as found in the liturgical books in force in 1962. This means that the Church requires our priests to celebrate exclusively the Traditional Latin Mass, as well as other sacrements and ceremonies according to this more ancient liturgical tradition of the Church.

 

Our priests serve in a wide variety of countries and apostolates. Some serve in parishes entrusted to the Institute by local diocesan bishops. Others serve in public chapels and oratories attached to our houses, or teach in the Pontifical Universities in Rome, or at our own seminary in France. The Institute also runs an apostolate preaching retreats according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Institute has houses in France, Poland, Italy, Portugal, the U.S.A., Australia, Uganda, Brazil and Columbia.  

 

For more information about the Institute of the Good Shepherd, see the Institute's main website in French, or the website for the USA in English.