The San Felipe Neri oratory in Porreres closes after more than a century of holding mass.

PorreresThe parishioners of Porreres who are faithful to the Sant Felip Neri oratory will be left without a church after Palm Sunday, March 29th, the date on which Father Francesc Novella will celebrate his last Mass and lock the church doors. The closure will mark the end of an important part of the town's history and, of course, the end of a chapter in Novella's life, as he has led the oratory for nearly 30 years. For some time now, various reports have pointed to the closure of Sant Felip. In fact, during the prayers at Mass for several months, Francesc Novella had been asking for the oratory's continued operation. However, it caught the attention of the faithful that he had stopped including this prayer in recent Masses, which could mean that its continued operation had been guaranteed or, conversely, that the closure of the center was a firm decision.

Finally, as has been confirmed All PlansThe definitive closure, which would have been decreed by the highest authority of the Church, has been decided, and the date will be the last Sunday of March, bringing to a close decades of activity at the oratory. Throughout its history, the oratory has had various uses and periods of decline and recovery. Until now, its primary use has been religious, but in the 20th century it also served as an educational center. The second half of the 20th century brought a progressive decline: a lack of vocations, withdrawal from educational and liturgical activities, and finally, its legal integration into the congregation of Palma on April 5, 1988, with religious services reduced to weekends. According to the congregation, "a new phase of hope" began on October 28, 1998, when community life at the oratory was restarted "despite the dilapidated state of the buildings." This date coincides with Novella's arrival in Porreres. Since then, significant restoration work has been carried out—including the renovation of rooms, the sacristy, the bell tower, and the addition of modern facilities—and emphasis has been placed on pastoral and youth activities, such as catechism and choir school, as well as fidelity formation and choir school programs. Furthermore, in the late 1990s, major renovations were undertaken to adapt part of the building, and since then, a section has been used as a senior citizens' center.

The works on the San Felipe Neri oratory in Porreres, which began in 1891, were completed in 1911. Subsequently, the new church was blessed, although the improvement and expansion works of the complex continued to be developed for subsequent years.

This project was made possible thanks to the legacy of Father Joan Barceló Mora, former bursar of the parish church, who in his will bequeathed to the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri "a house and an adjoining plot of land for the purpose of founding the congregation in the municipality." The priest died on July 31, 1854. The founding of the oratory also benefited from the decisive impetus of Father Francesc Molina Guardiola, restorer of the Congregation of the Oratory of Palma, who made the consolidation of the project possible. A street in Porreres bears Molina's name. The building, designed by Pere de Alcàntara Penya, has a single nave with a barrel vault and four side chapels on each side. The altar and the main altarpiece are the work of the sculptor Gabriel Moragues. The presbytery houses an image of the Immaculate Conception created by Lluís Font in 1900, as well as a gilded shrine by the sculptor Vadell. The reasons for the closure have not been made public. In any case, closure has loomed over the Oratory of San Felipe since September 2025, when legal proceedings began in Court Number 3 of Manacor, which issued a restraining order against a member of the congregation regarding Father Novella. This member is under investigation for alleged crimes of trespassing, attempted burglary, and threats against the priest of the Oratory of San Felipe.