The Institute of St. Philip Neri

It has taken some two years but the new institute founded about a year and a half ago in Berlin and modeled on the Oratory of St. Philip Neri has on the feast of St. Philip Neri last week been granted the status of "Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right" by the Holy Father. The Institute is devoted to the traditional Roman Rite Mass and liturgy.

An English language text of the address the father founder,Dr. Gerald Goesche, gave to the International Federation Una Voce last year can be found here. In it he tells the story of his spiritual journey and his plans and intentions for the institute.

The Institute itself has a website here which, alas, is so far only in German. There is a link to an English language site but it is not up yet. My high school German (thank you, Fr.Straub) and the vocabulary list in the back of "Lernen Sie Deutsch!" make for a slow read with only moderately comprehensible results. I suppose the babelfish version will have to do until the English language site is up and running.

Even if you've lost your copy of "Lernen Sie Deutsch!" and don't trust babelfish, visit the site anyway for a few nice pictures. Here is Fr. Goesche at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in Rome celebrating the official papal recognition of the Institute of St. Philip Neri.