Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney

The bishop and priests of the Apostolic Administration of St John Mary Vianney in Campos, Brazil

The Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney was established on 18 January 2002 by Pope John Paul II for traditionalist Catholic clergy and laity within the Diocese of Campos in Brazil. It is the only Personal Apostolic Administration in existence, and the only Catholic Church jurisdiction devoted exclusively to celebrating the pre-1970 form of the Roman Rite. Its current Apostolic Administrator is Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan.  It consists of over 30,000 Catholics, 32 priests, 7 seminarians, 38 religious sisters, and 24 schools.

An Apostolic Administration is not a group or a religious society or congregation, but is a normal and official ecclesiastical circumscription of the Catholic Church, the same as a Diocese or a Prelature or an Ordinariate, that is, a particular church, part of the Universal and unique Catholic Church. Because of that, the Bishop of the Apostolic Administration has the same power as a diocesan bishop in his jurisdiction.

As a group of traditionalist Catholics thus fully within the Roman Catholic Church, they recognize the authority of the Pope as Vicar of Christ and Shepherd of the Church, the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council, and the validity of the Mass approved by Pope Paul VI. The Priests of the Apostolic Administration have the faculty to celebrate in Latin the Mass and all the other sacramental rites in the form codified by Pope Pius V and modified by his successors down to Pope John XXIII.

More information can be found at the Apostolic Administration's website, here (Portuguese language).

Pope Francis greets Bp Rifan in 2013.