Father Drew Morgan, provost of the Pittsburgh Oratory in Pennsylvania, will speak on “John Henry Newman and the Oratory of St. Philip Neri: An Exploration in the Evangelization of Culture” at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, in Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
An oratory is a community of Catholic priests and brothers. Oratories often have a chief mission, which could be teaching, parish work or campus ministry.
The Oratory of St. Philip Neri was founded in the 16th century in Rome, and today has more than 70 oratories, with some 500 priests, around the world.
The first oratory in the Unites States was founded in South Carolina in 1934. In addition to the Pittsburgh Oratory, where Morgan is provost, they also are located in California, New York and New Jersey.
When Newman became a Catholic, he brought the Oratory of St. Philip Neri to the English-speaking world. Morgan’s Feb. 13 lecture at St. Thomas will examine how the oratory became the context for Newman’s vision of the evangelization of culture.
The lecture is sponsored by St. Thomas’ Center for Catholic Studies. Refreshments will be served.