New initiative: Fr Paul Chandler is involved in the Brisbane Oratory in Formation.
By Fr Paul W. Chandler
IN recent months, the Brisbane Oratory in Formation has taken some significant steps.
The oratory has been placed under the protection of four saints.
Since this is the first oratory for this country, Australia’s own patron, Our Lady, Help of Christians, is first among them.
Next comes St Philip Neri, who founded the Congregation of the Oratory in Rome in the 16th century.
Two beati also figure among the patrons, Blesses John Henry Newman, who brought the Oratorian way of life to England in the 19th century and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Italian man, who is patron of World Youth Days.
Four priests will come together in 2015 or 2016 to begin the oratory community at a place yet to be decided by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge.
Encouraging progress is being made in this.
An oratory’s apostolate is very much a city one so a number of inner city locations are being examined.
Already there is a seminarian, Br Shawn Murphy, who has begun his formation at the Toronto Oratory in Canada.
He returns home each year to visit his family and the priests.
When the community takes up residence in its home, it will be in formation for three years and then the members can apply to the Holy See to be formally erected as an Oratory of St Philip Neri.
Fr Uwe Michael Lang CO, from the London Oratory, has been appointed the delegate of the Procurator General of the Congregation to assist the community through its years of formation.
Fr Lang was recently in Australia and met for a week with the community.
When St Philip began the Oratory in Rome he wanted to renew the Church in that city and make the faith real in the lives of the people.
The Brisbane Oratory will seek to do the same, through solemn and beautiful celebrations of the Liturgy of the Church, through providing regular opportunity for Confession, as well as catechesis and formation in the faith for lay people, particularly young adults.
An oratory also always has great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady.
The oratory community is made up of secular priests who live a common life, not bound by religious vows but by the bond of charity.
Each oratory is independent, though is part of the worldwide confederation.
They seek to live a simple family life, which supports each priest in his sanctification and in his apostolate.
Oratorian priests engage in a wide range of apostolates, though key to the English-speaking oratories is an educational apostolate.
There is stability in the life of an Oratorian since once a member of the community a priest remains there.
The establishment of an oratory in Brisbane signals a new chapter in the life of the Church in this city and heralds a springtime for the faith.
On behalf of the priests and our student, I ask that you would support us by your prayers and, if possible, support us financially with a regular donation as we must raise the money to finance the establishment of the oratory.
Even before the community comes together we have an annual cost of tens of thousands of dollars each year to educate and support our seminarian, and we hope there will be more young men to join him.
We rely heavily upon the support and generosity of the lay faithful.
May our patrons intercede for us and the Church here in Brisbane.
Visit www.brisbane-oratory.org for more information
