On the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 25 March 2019, the Master of the Order, fr. Bruno Cadoré, OP, promulgated the General Declarations for the Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic.
This was in fulfillment of the commission made by the General Chapter of Bologna in 2016, wherein the Master of the Order, together with the General Council, and in collaboration with the Coordinator of the Priestly Fraternities, was to examine and respond appropriately to the proposals made by the International Meeting of the Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic held at Rome, 22-26 February 2016 (ACG 2016, 353).
This is the first of its kind to be made concerning the Rule of the Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic, which has remained unchanged since its approval ad experimentum on 4 January 1972, and definitively on 3 December 1996 by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
As a supplementary norm to the Regula Fraternitatum Sacerdotalium Sancti Dominici, the General Declarations thus provide for matters that are pertinent to all fraternities of secular priests in the Order, but are not specified in the Rule, namely: on Permanent Deacons; on the Use of the Habit and the Post-Nominal Initial “O.P.”; on the Permission by the Diocesan Bishop; on Chapters-In-Formation; on the Local Directory; and on Translations of the Rule.