Oratory founded in Bournemouth will evangelise and help the poor

The UK’s seventh Oratory is to be established in Bournemouth as part of an evangelisation drive in Portsmouth Diocese, writes Rose Gamble.

The new Oratorian Community of St Philip Neri, the second to be established in England and Wales this year, is to be inaugurated at Sacred Heart Church in September. Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, who invited the Oratorians to the town, said they would provide much needed pastoral care.

“The Diocese has areas of real deprivation and poverty. There are immigrants and foreign nationals, as well as university and college students living far away from home. This is a pastoral situation that is urgent. It impels action,” he said.

The bishop also spoke of a need to evangelise within the diocese: “More than ever we need today to be confident and clear in witnessing to the Person of Jesus Christ and the truths of the Catholic faith, to help people find the way to authentic humanism and happiness.”

The new oratory will offer sacramental support with daily Mass and confessions, pastoral care of students and help to the homeless and sick. There will be three priests: Fr Dominic Jacob, co-founder of the Oxford Oratory, Fr Peter Edwards and Fr David Hutt. Earlier this year, the Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack, gave permission for the establishment of an Oratory of St Philip Neri mainly to serve the chaplaincy for the University of Cardiff. It will be supported by the Birmingham Oratory.

There are three UK Oratories, in Birmingham, London and Oxford, and four communities in formation in Manchester, York, Cardiff and Bournemouth.