The Lanterian Charism of the OMV

The charism of a religious institute is something that can seem difficult to describe, partly because they all spring from the same source (the Church's apostolate) and also because many of their distinguishing characteristics are shared. But each religious institute is founded in response to a specific need tied to a place and time, so understanding the history of an institute and particularly the history and spirituality of its founder(s) is important to understanding its charism.

The founder of the Oblates, Ven. Bruno Lanteri, was a priest from Piedmont (now northern Italy) who lived from 1759 to 1830. During this period, Europe was in political turmoil due to revolutions and the Napoleonic Wars, and in spiritual turmoil due to widespread heresies, especially moral rigorism. Many governments, including the Piedmontese Republic in the early nineteenth century, were hostile toward the Church in general and religious orders in particular; governments viewed them as more difficult to control than the secular clergy and a third column in social engineering because of their pervasive presence in schools, hospitals, and other social institutions. Progressive thinkers expended much energy in attacking them and attempting to turn popular opinion against them. In the spiritual realm, there was widespread moral rigorism: the teaching that heaven is attained with great difficulty by the few who lead morally blameless lives and that the remaining masses of sinners should not expect God's mercy. It was not uncommon for penitents to be refused absolution until they had completed harsh penances and frequent reception of the Eucharist was unheard of.

This was also during the Jesuit suppression when members of the Society of Jesus were either in exile or working within dioceses. This is how Fr. Lanteri met Fr. Nikolaus von Diessbach, an Austrian Jesuit who worked in the Turin diocese during this time and became his friend an mentor. It was under the direction of Diessbach that Lanteri made the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and had a profound experience of God's mercy, something that he used widely in his ministry and later as a cornerstone of the Oblate congregation.

Lanteri became a member of Diessbach's friendship groups (amicizie), a new phenomenon that connected lay people and priests who were interested in spiritual formation and spreading wholesome literature. At that time, the printed word was the mass media and every bit as widely sought as internet access is today. Intellectual debates were conducted via printed tracts that people would disseminate in order to advance their ideas. Lanteri was involved throughout his life in arranging the writing, printing, and distribution of 'good books,' books that were both morally edifying and faithful to the teachings of the Church, to counteract the harm of modernists who attacked Christian faith and morals. 

Through his ministries of preaching popular missions and offering the Ignatian Exercises, spiritual direction and confession, circulating Catholic books, supporting associations of lay and priestly formation, and providing care for those in need, Fr. Lanteri became a well-known and well-loved priest in Turin. His mission was to guide people who were sincerely seeking holiness, always insisting that fidelity to the Church and her teaching and devotion to the Mother of God were the sure guides to Christian perfection. He became a champion of the moral theology of St. Alphonsus Liguori and became instrumental in translating his theology into French and disseminating it in France for the first time. 

In 1814, three young priests sought out Fr. Lanteri and asked him to guide them in forming a new priestly fraternity for preaching retreats and reviving spirituality in their region. He eventually agreed and entrusted the group to the Virgin Mary, whom he always called its foundress and teacher. Despite setbacks, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary were approved by Pope Leo XII on September 1, 1826, four years before Lanteri's death. The congregation spread throughout Italy despite antagonism from the local government in Piedmont and, although never numerous, missionary zeal has taken Oblates all over the world. 

The OMV charism can be described as working toward a rebirth of spirituality in the contemporary world 

1) in mercy (by preaching God's mercy to penitents and reconciling them), 

2) through Mary (the foundress and teacher of the congregation who never fails to bring seekers to her Son), 

3) with fidelity (remaining faithful to the Pope and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church), 

4) by discernment (using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and spiritual direction),

5) for today's world (using the media to evangelize the culture, combatting whatever errors are current and making authentic Church teaching widely available).

"Even if I should fall a thousand times a day, a thousand times I will get up again and say Nunc Coepi (Now I begin)."
-Ven. Lanteri