http://www.oblatepartnership.org/ 

Who We Are

The Missionary Oblate Partnership is a ministry of the US Province of Missionary Oblates.  It has three purposes: 1. To provide a diversity of resources for the promotion of the US Province and global Oblate units; 2. To promote the spiritual enrichment of its members that includes the Oblate charisms, and 3. To provide experiences that promote friendship among its members. 

Membership

The Missionary Oblate Partnership is an entirely voluntary organization with the only requirement of Partners being that they allow their name to printed on Missionary Oblate Partnership letterhead.  There are no dues, no vows and no obligations to attend meet

ings or events. The heart of the Partnership is men and women who freely give of their time and their resources in a variety of ways, in a variety of locations and through a variety of ways.

Members come from a wide variety of backgrounds and locations around the US: education, medicine, entertainment, philanthropy, politics, business, finance, art, religious life.  There are several individual Oblates who are formal members and there are also non-Oblate religious, diocesan priests and two Catholic bishops.  Of the approximately 120 Partners, two are non-Catholic Christians, one is Muslim and one is Jewish. 

The Partnership makes clear to new members that they will be asked to share their time, their expertise and their financial resources but also makes clear that all gifts of time, expertise and money should be given freely and not out of a sense of membership obligation.

 Formation of Members

Individual members are initiated into the Oblate charisms through the receipt of printed material on the Founder and current Oblate ministries, which include the US Province Newsletter and the Partnership eNewsletter.  Additionally, meetings, retreats, conversations with many Oblates and the availability of travel to Oblate ministry sites in the US and around the world deepen an appreciation of Oblate identity.

In addition to domestic events, the Partnership has also formally promoted member attendance at a weeklong formation experience on Oblate history and identity in Aix en Provence, France, where the Congregation was founded.  Called “In the Footsteps of De Mazenod,” this experience is held every two years for Partners.

 Spiritual & Social Enrichment

Each year the Parntership hosts both regional and national events that are designed to bring together Partners and friends of the Oblates for purposes of education, reflection, prayer, and having fun together.

NATIONALLY, the Partnerships hosts the De Mazenod Confernce each February or March in San Antonio. The conference is held for two days and includes nationally-recognized speakers and almost always, speakers from among the Partnership and from the Oblates of the US Province.   Past topics:

Faith & Technology

MIA: Missing In Action Catholics

MIA II: Strategies for Reaching MIA Catholics

Catholic Spirituality in Daily Living

Laudato Si: Our Faith, Money & Ecology

OMI: A Strategic Review of US Province Congregational Life

A Pathway of the Heart: Renewing the Catholic Church

 REGIONALLY, group meetings, which usually include a meeting, mass and speaker, are held once or twice a year around the US.  Meeting sites are usually San Antonio, DC, Seattle and St. Paul/Minneapolis, but have included Belleville, IL, Denver, CO and Riviera Beach, FL.

 AD HOC TRAVEL:  From time to time, the Partnership will also sponsor trips to OMI important locations around the country or world.  Past trips have been to Rome, Washington, DC, Haiti, Cuba, India, Mexico and Zambia. 

Resources Shared By Members

Below is a partial of the various resource of time, talent and treasure that Partners have provide OMI in the past decade: 

-Single largest gift to a US Catholic school of theology: Tom Benson, $15 million

-Leadership funding of OMI Delegation Scholastics Residence in Makeni, Zambia

-Audit of damaged building for Haiti Province following the earthquake

-editorial support of Ron Rolheiser, OMI

-billboard campaign in St. Louis & Houston

-initiation of Oblate Mission Experience in 2019

-iconography for OST and Oblate parish in Tijuana

-Partner membership on US Province Finance, Investment and Communication Committees

-Leadership funding of Vance Campus & Borzaga Residences, San Antonio

-Leadership advisory and funding of OMI Novitiate in Godfrey, IL

-Funding of interreligious scholarship of OMI-led Council for Research in Values & Philosophy

-Creation of endowed, annual grant-making Partnership Mission Fund

-Annual De Mazenod Conference convenes Church/congregational leadership throughout USA

-Partnership-managed MPS is leading missionary-focused gran-twriting resource

-Partners provide finance and building advisory to OMI units in India, Zambia and Mexico

-Grant workshops for OMIs in India, Bangladesh, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Peru & Cameroon