Building Operations | Finances | Education | Guests | Travels | Information
21st March, 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
There is much happening in Sant'Anselmo at the moment and it is time to send you some news. In this letter our restoration and renovation operations have centre stage. On my visits to other monasteries I have noticed, indeed, that it is not only at Sant'Anselmo that building and renovations are taking place.
Since three weeks ago there has been a huge crane direcly in front of the balcony of my office. Every morning at eight o'clock the workers continue the work of restoring the roof of the church. While the main beams are sound, the minor beams that support the roof-tiles crumble in one's hand. The crane is placed on our football pitch and is firmly anchored in concrete. Our students have found an alternative venue for their Saturday game of football thanks to the Salesians in Testaccio. When the roof is finished the interior of the church will be completely repainted.
The Atrium of the church is now gleaming in renewed splendour. The roof has been completely replaced and the stone capitals and entrance portal of the church have been restored to their original brilliant white.
The crane will remain in front of my window for a long time. Once the church is finished we intend to excavate the cloister garden which for the last ten years has been surrounded by an ugly wooden hoarding. Half of the new space underground will be used to provide a new aula and the other half for extra storage-space for the Library. This space will be given a solid roof to form a floor at cloister level which in turn will be roofed in glass to provide a covered courtyard, a practice that is becoming popular in many places. The resulting space will provide an aula which we hope to use for the next Congress of Abbots in September 2008. We are going to have to wait for the definitive Aula Magna under the second courtyard, along with all the changes associated with this building. Funding for this latter project had been agreed in principle by the Italian State but the money was used subsequently for projects in Irak. Then, before the Minister responsible could sign the appropriate documents, there was a change of Government. For this reason, at the last Synod of Abbots President at Downside, it was decided to build a provisional aula in the cloister as described above. This means that once more I am going to have to become a ‘Mendicant' and approach abbots and monasteries for the money to finance this project. I am sorry that again and again I have to bother people with such requests. And the roof restoration project must also continue. But when these projects are completed we will not regret them. Recently, when tidying up my outer office, we discovered behind a filing-cabinet the plans for the excavation of the two cloister courtyards along with the original permission from the Department of Ancient Monuments. We had been looking for these documents for years.
In the autumn we were able to finish the complete renovation of our laundry. This is now dry and hygienic and the new machines ensure a gentler treatment of garments. Shortly, the firm of Schindler will replace the lift near the sacristy, renovate the lift near the Portineria and install a completely new lift in the stair-well that leads to the laundry. All of this has been arranged by Father Markus Muff. The firm will do all of this work for nothing. We will pay only the VAT (Added Value Tax) on the operations.
All of these activities are a source of much extra work and an enormous challenge for our Economo, Father Gerardo and our Treasurer General, Abbot Laurence. I am very grateful to them, to their co-workers, to the Professors and the Students for the patience that they have shown and will have to show for the duration of the building-operations.
I am also grateful to the abbots and their communities and to several generous benefactors who have financed these costly projects to date. In the long term we hope to beome less dependent on ad-hoc appeals. We have established two foundations with the object of putting Sant'Anselmo on a firm financial footing. The scope of the former Pontifical Institute of Liturgy (PIL) foundation in the United States has been broadened to include all of Sant'Anselmo and will in future be known as the "Saint Benedict Education Foundation". Here, I should like particularly to thank the American Abbeys and Priories that have assumed the start-up financing of this foundation for the first three years. A foundation needs a few years before it can become self-financing and begin to make funds available for various projects. My special thanks go to Archabbot Douglas of St. Vincent, the unflagging driving force behind this foundation. Again, some days ago we were able to establish a foundation for Europe under the name of "Foundation Benedict". This foundation has its official office in a bank in Lucerne in Switzerland. According to its legal constitution, this foundation will concern itself primarily with Sant'Anselmo but will be open to the needs of other monasteries. The "Fondo Accademico" for the support of the Athenaeum will continue to be an internal foundation of the Benedictine Order. The Abbey of Engelberg has generously released Father Markus Muff to take care of development activities within Europe. He is in the process of building up a network of contacts and has already been successful in attracting some gifts. Nor should I like to forget the help of the Abbot of Ganagobie who has been instrumental in obtaining some donations in France.
None of this means, however, that we are now swimming in money. Foundations need a long time to bear fruit. The two foundations mentioned above are intended to secure the financial future of Sant'Anselmo by establishing endowments for professorial chairs, student scholarships and the maintenance of the buildings. But in the immediate future we shall need large sums to pay for current renovation measures. On Ash Wednesday when I was explaining these measures to the Holy Father on his arrival here and told him that I was looking for the necessary money he said, "Saint Benedict will help." I replied, ‘No, this is Saint Joseph's responsibility." He laughed and said, "You're right again."
3. Athenaeum, College and Further Education
But now to the life of the house itself. This year the Athenaeum, or university, has 380 students. The College, with 120 residents from 43 nations, is completely full. Still, I should like to ask all Superiors not to overlook Sant'Anselmo as a possible place of study for their younger members. I think that while living in Rome is not always easy it can be a great and worthwhile experience for younger confreres: the Universal Church with its history steeped in the whole history of the West since the time of the Romans; the experience of the different observances, cultures and mentalities, including those of the Eastern Churches, here in the house; the monastic tradition of a sapiential approach to theology in our Athenaeum.
This year we are holding neither our Recyclage Programme nor our Programme for Monastic Formators, but are preparing to resume both next year. It is clear that the fact that these programmes are conducted through the medium of English tends to restrict the circle of potential participants. Maybe this can be seen as an encouragement for some to learn this language.
We have had additions to our personnel: Abbot Pius Engelbert from Gerleve, for many years a professor of Church History here and editor of the "Corpus Consuetudinum" has, following his resignation, returned to Sant'Anselmo and taken over the archives of the Confederation. There is much work of sorting and listing to be done to make these archives available to researchers. Father John Seddon from Ramsgate Abbey has come to work as a librarian. Since the Autumn, Father Denys Bernard Cazes from the French Trappist monastery of Mont des Cats has been teaching in the Faculty of Philosophy. Sister Leena of the Indian St. Lioba Sisters is working in the Portineria and in the Rector's office. Many thanks to the various monasteries for this sign of helpful solidarity.
I should like to mention some of our many guests. The Holy Father was here briefly on Ash Wednesday. On 21st November last, the head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Rowan Williams, came here along with Cardinal Kasper and delivered a brilliant and much acclaimed lecture on "Benedict and the Future of Europe".
The Benedictine women held their symposium,"RB 64,19. Wisdom Leadership" here last September. At the end of this symposium, on 15th September, Sister Judith Heble of Sacred Heart Monastery, Lisle, Illinois was elected the new Moderator of the CIB. She succeeds Mother Máre Hickey, Abbess of Dinklage, who with great care and discernment led the former Commission for Benedictine Women to the formation of the CIB and in this made an essential contribution to the growing awareness among Benedictine women of their shared inheritance.
In the meantime preparations have begun for the second World Congress of Oblates which will take place in 2009. The first Congress in 2005 has had an extraordinary resonance and in many countries has given new life to the Benedictine charism among laypeople.
But our main preparations at the moment are focussed on the Congress of Abbots in 2008. The preparatory commission met at the last Synod of Abbots President at Downside and again on 26th February at Sant'Anselmo.
Finally, I should like to mention briefly some of my travels. Unfortunately, previous commitments prevented my attendance at the meeting in November of French Abbesses and Prioresses at Pradines. I was able to be present at the large meeting of Latin-American Benedictines, Cistercians and Trappists at Belo Horizonte in Brazil which had as its theme "Peace as Gift and Challenge". I took this opportunity to make short visits to the communities at São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador-Bahía and Olinda. I shall not forget the warmth of the Brazilian welcome I received wherever I went. Following this I flew to Mount Angel in the north-west of the United States for the dedication of a new wing of their seminary. This gave me the chance to speak with several abbots and with Cardinal Levada about our Saint Benedict Education Foundation.
At the end of January I went to San Francisco for the Workshop of North-American Abbots and Prioresses. Here the theme was "The Following of Christ in the Light of Chapter 72 of the Rule of Benedict". Abbess Máire Hickey and the Trappist Abbot Armand Veilleux set the scene for the discussions. Then it was on to India for the annual meeting of the Superiors of India and Sri Lanka. This took place at the Sylvestrine Priory of Vijayawada. One of the emphases was on the question of solid monastic training and continuing monastic formation. Similar questions were dealt with at the Abbey of Inkamana where the conference of the eleven communities of southern Africa met. Two of these communities are Anglican. There had been Anglicans, too, at the American meeting and this has led me to wonder whether or not, particularly with a view to England, we might not find some form of closer connection with these Anglican communities. Confreres from Zimbabwe posed the question of how we Benedictines could help the many people suffering from HIV/AIDS. The World Council of Churches in Geneva has published a pastoral information booklet by Father Robert Igo on this topic.
Throughout all of these journeys I was accompanied by a professional photographer who plans to publish a book on the global presence of Benedictines. Further, I was accompanied by a camera team from Bavarian Television. The members of this team were fascinated by the variety of Benedictine life and its rootedness in different cultures throughout the world. Their intention is to communicate this reality to their viewers. Benedict is at home not only in Europe but, for example, over the last century-and-a-half, has put his stamp on the Church in the United States. Benedict's Rule, based on the Gospel, is increasingly esteemed in India and even in the vast expanses of Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, St. Benedict is no longer a stranger. In the late afternoon of Easter Sunday, Bavarian Television will broadcast a thirty-minute film and a longer version will go out in June. When I have the DVDs I shall be glad to make copies available. I should like to thank everybody for their patience during the making of these films. During the Pope's visit to Bavaria I was invited by Bavarian Television to be co-commentator for their transmissions and I did my best to communicate the Holy Father's message.
The new Catalogus Monasteriorum O.S.B. appeared last Autumn in two volumes, one for monks and one for sisters and moniales. Each volume costs €50 and can be ordered from: Dott. Fernando Cannicci, Centro Studi, Collegio Sant'Anselmo, Piazza Cavalieri di Malta 5, I-00153 Rome, Italy. Please note that orders and enquiries should not be sent to the Abbot Primate's curia. I am grateful to my confreres in the curia for the painstaking and detailed work required for the compilation of the mens' catalogus and no less grateful to the sisters of the Venio Community in Munich for the vastly more comprehensive catalogus for women.
Those who are interested in obtaining information on Sant'Anselmo via
Internet might care to look in the following websites:
www.santanselmo.org (for information on the Athenaeum)
www.santanselmo.net (for information on the College)
The addresses of all monasteries of men and women can be found in the OSB
Atlas under:
www.osb-international.info/atlas
My thanks to Father Johannes Paul Abrahamowicz, Prior of St Paul's Outside the Walls, who ensures that these addresses are constantly updated.
It will take some time for the Calendarium Benedictinum to be adapted to the new directives.
With this I come to the end. I wish you all a joyful and blessed celebration of the Easter Triduum. These three days are not only high points in the liturgy but also in the life of our communities.
With fraternal greetings,
+
Notker,
Abbot Primate
www.osb.org/intl/confed/cl2005eng.html