The other day (May 25) we had the liturgical memorial of the great Italian saint, Philip Neri. He is indeed an under appreciated saint of the Church. Neri can’t be white-washed nor can be merely imitated in a blind way. We need to encounter Neri on his own terms. Some want to make him a patron saint of the new evangelization, others like Elizabeth Scalia see St Philip in the pastoral work of Pope Francis. Like other saints of great import, Neri needs to be taken up and explored more deeply for his pastoral approach to ecclesial life, his preaching, his life of sanctity, and his ideas as founder of the Oratory, not for any such novelty that may or may not exist. This last point on the Oratory needs to be teased out since we are now seeing the founding of more Oratories in the USA (England has a rise in Oratorian life).
While I disagree with Elizabeth Scalia’s idea that His Holiness imitates Neri or that we can see Neri in the work of Francis, I do think her essay warrants a more serious look on Neri for ecclesial life in the USA.