INSTITUTE OF THE ORATORY OF SAINT PHILIP NERI. – The first nucleus of this Institute formed around the church of S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome, when several priests, drawn by the zeal and novelty of St Philip’s priestly apostolate, gathered around him to collaborate in the work of the Oratory (q.v.). The first rules were laid down by the Saint in 1565 and concerned only divine worship, preaching at the Oratory, exhortation to shun honours, and the reading and discussion of moral cases in the refectory. On 15 July 1575, when Gregory XIII donated to the community the church of S. Maria in Valpoli, the canonical erection of the Congregation took place. A first draft of the Constitutions appeared in 1583, but until 1612 the Fathers followed customary rules, which were then definitively codified and approved by Paul V.
The Oratorians, or Priests of the Oratory, are simple priests without vows, living in community, united solely by the bond of fraternal charity, yet voluntarily coordinated and subordinated to a prepositus and his collaborators, freely elected by those entitled within the community. The sanctification of individual members is achieved through the free practice of the evangelical counsels and life in community, lived in a spirit of family and fraternal charity. The Oratorian asceticism is founded on prayer, piety that is simple yet profound, always in line with the liturgy, humility and contempt for human glory, and self-denial. The aim is to promote the good of souls by every means according to the norms of the Constitutions, the spirit of the Institute, and that broad freedom granted by the community to individual initiative. The apostolate of the Priests of the Oratory is eminently priestly: administration of the Sacraments (with a particular predilection for Confession), preaching (in the familiar style used by the founder), sacred worship (to bring the people closer to the liturgy), and youth apostolate (in all its cultural and recreational forms of the time).
In the mind of St Philip there was no intention of founding a new religious family, as he repeatedly declared, but only of providing for his Oratory in Rome. Nevertheless, the Philipine idea found application and favour in every country, and thus, even during the Saint’s lifetime, other houses of the Oratory arose, which, by analogy with the position of the members within the community, were autonomous, though linked by the bond of fraternal charity. Just as the Oratorian is a priest of his own diocese, so the community finds its natural environment in the diocese where it is established, even though it is of pontifical right, thus giving rise to an institution sui generis, which precisely demonstrates the entirely peculiar character of this priestly way of life, a link between the form of life of the secular clergy and that of the regulars.
According to the new norms added to the Constitutions in 1942 and called General Statutes, a kind of federation of all the Congregations has been achieved, at the common desire discussed since 1895, while each Congregation remains autonomous. This federation represents the juridical elaboration of a moral union, which time has shown to be most useful. It thus lays the premise for closer collaboration and spiritual, cultural, and material assistance, always safeguarding respective autonomy. The organ of this union is the decennial Philipine Congress, which appoints a commission upon which depends the procurator general. These organs have no jurisdictional powers, but are entrusted solely with maintaining connections, safeguarding, and representing the interests of the individual communities before the Holy See.
The Congregation of the Oratory, which had already spread to France by the end of the 16th century, gave rise, due to the particular circumstances and needs of that nation, to the derived family of the Oratory of Jesus and Mary (q.v.), founded by Pierre de Bérulle (q.v.). While remaining entirely similar to the original stock, the French Oratory has had its own particular and most fruitful life.
The Philipine houses linked to Rome spread to every Catholic country, reaching their greatest flourishing in the 17th and 18th centuries; then the general or local revolutions shattered many energies, which, lacking the support of a unifying force, succumbed. Today the houses of the Institute are: 15 in Italy, 9 in Spain, 5 in Germany, 5 in Mexico, 2 in Poland, 2 in England, 2 in Colombia, 1 in Bolivia, and 1 in the United States. The members of the various communities number about 400. The Institute also has a centre for studies and formation, known as the Pio XII International Philipine College, located at the mother house of the Vallicella in Rome.