- 12:30 p.m. — general business meeting, all invited
- App. 12:45 p.m. — guest speaker, all invited
- Immediately following, app. 1:20 — Board Meeting
TOPIC:
“The Oratory of St. Philip Neri”
GUEST SPEAKER:
Bro. Joshua Edmund Vargas, C.O.
Oratory of St. Philip Neri
From Br. Joshua Edmund Vargas, C.O.
“I was born in 1987 in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1989 I moved with my parents to Orlando, FL where I grew up in a culturally Catholic family with a lot of New Age practices and ideas. At the age of 13, beginning with websites and eventually moving onto books, I began to read my way into the faith and receive the sacraments regularly. In 2006 I moved to New York City to attend NYU from which I received a BFA in Film & Television, with the intention of directing horror films. While I was there, I became involved in the Newman Club and also became a regular server at various Latin Masses around the city and in New Jersey. During that time I began to think seriously about the priesthood, but was unsure of where to pursue a priestly vocation. After graduation, I continued to involve myself in various Catholic groups in the city including the Catholic Artists Society, the New York Purgatorial Society, the Society of Our Lady of Coromoto, and the Thomistic Institute. For nine of the twelve years that I lived in New York, I worked for the Dominican Friars, doing video and photoshop work for them, and producing several short documentaries, promotional videos, and music videos. After becoming intensely interested in St. Philip Neri and the Oratory, I began to visit various oratorian communities in 2016-2018, and finally entered the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Philadelphia in February of 2020. Having completed my guest period and novitiate, I am now a permanent member of the Philadelphia Oratory. Having completed four years of seminary studies, with two remaining, and am due to be ordained a deacon in 2025, and a priest in 2026.”
