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Hodie
Christus natus est.
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The Order of Saint BenedictWhat Was NewOctober, November, and December 2007Rev. 26 February 2008 
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December 2007
Abbot Elected Prior
On Monday, 31 December 2007, the monks of St Joseph's Abbey, Güigüe, Venezuela, elected Abbot emeritus José Maria Martínez Barrera OSB as prior administrator for a period of three years. Abbot José María was previously abbot of Güigüe from 1982 until 2002 when he resigned. Abbot Otto Lohner OSB, the successor of Abbot José María, died unexpectedly on November 4th. Abbot José María has been administrator of El Rosal in Colombia since June 2005 and will continue in this office as well.
Mabillon Anniversary
On 27 December, Dom Philippe Dupont OSB, Abbot of Solesmes, was the principal celebrant at a Mass in the parish church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. The occasion marked the conclusion of the 300th anniversary year of the death of the celebrated Benedictine, Dom Jean Mabillon OSB. The 6 p.m. Mass, at which the Gregorian Choir of Paris sang, followed a conference held nearby about "Dom Mabillon: the monk and historian" (Zenit).
New Prior for Sri Lanka
On Thursday, 13 December, the monks of Saint Sylvester Monastery, Ampitiya, Sri Lanka, announced the election of Dom Leonard Ranasinghe OSB, 59, as their prior. Also elected were Dom Hilarion Fernando OSB and Dom Sylvester Jayakody OSB as councilors. The prior appointed as councilors Dom Yovan Saverimuttu OSB and Dom Emil Joseph OSB. The monastery was founded in 1928 and became a conventual priory in 1983.
Coping Cistercians
Gretchen Keiser writes for Catholic News Service an illustrative article about the Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. The plight of the monastery is familiar to many congregations of consecrated religious -- declining numbers, aging membership, increased medical costs, and a reduction in earning power. Founded in 1944 when there was only one Catholic family in the county, the Archdiocese of Atlanta now numbers 650,000 Catholics. The Trappist monks of Conyers have developed a master plan for the future that has already inspired hope. "There is a unified sense that we are going to move forward and do it. It is embraced by the majority of the community," says Abbot Francis Michael Stiteler OCSO, elected in 2003.
Peace on Earth
Station Commander Peggy Whitson, of the International Space Station's Expedition 16, is the daughter of a cousin of Sister Mary Ethel Burley OSB (Mount St. Scholastica). Last summer when Sister Mary Ethel was visiting her family, she gave Peggy a medal of Saint Benedict to take with her on the six-month assignment to the space station.
Astronaut Whitson sent the picture at right that shows the Benedictine medal placed on one of the windows. Peggy's message indicated that she hopes the Sisters enjoy this unique view from space showing the curvature of Earth below the Benedictine medal. View a Holiday Message from the space station.
Saint Benedict
The winter 2007 issue of Christian History and Biography is devoted to Saint Benedict and the rise of Western Monasticism. Several articles from that issue appear online, and a paper copy of "Benedict: A Devoted Life" (issue 93) is available for $5 with reduced rates for bulk orders. Father Hugh Feiss OSB contributed "A Life of Listening -- Benedict's Rule became the gold standard of monastic life." The magazine is published as a service of Christianity Today International.
Benedictine Nuns Return to Prague
On Saturday, 8 December, H.E. Miloslav Cardinal Vlk, Archbishop of Prague, and Abbot Primate Dr. Notker Wolf OSB will inaugurate the new monastery of Benedictine women in Brevnov, Czech Republic. Benedictine women first settled in the Czech Republic in 973. They lasted until secularization by Emperor Joseph II in 1782. A refounding by German-speaking Sisters from Salzburg late in the 19th century lasted until they were expelled in 1918 when Czechoslovakia was created after the First World War.
When a new monastery for Benedictine women was erected in Poland in 1992, it was with the proviso that Sr. Anezka Najmanova OSB be included to recruit Czech Sisters. In 2003 Prioress Lucia Wagner OSB, Munich, became the delegate for the Czech foundation. S. Anezka and three Czech Sisters came from Poland in 2004 to the Venio Benedictine community in Munich. They, along with Sr. Birgitta Louis OSB from Munich, will establish the first Czech Benedictine women's community in 89 years. They will live in the parish house of the Abbey of Brevnov and renovate an ancient pilgrimage house nearby into a guest house (www.orden.de).
November 2007
Father Henry Lemke OSB Remembered
29 November 2007 was the 125th anniversary of the death of Father Henry Lemke OSB, founder of St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kansas. Born 27 July 1795 into a Lutheran family of Rehna, Mecklenburg, Germany, he became a Lutheran pastor, and in 1820 he preached his first sermon in his hometown. As a school master and part-time preacher, he lost his faith, but found it three years later among the Catholics of Regensburg. Confirmed in 1824, he celebrated his first Mass in 1826.
In 1834 Fr. Henry responded to a letter from Henry Conwell, the second Bishop of Philadelphia, asking for missionaries to help with German Catholic immigrants. Lemke was instrumental in creating the town of Carrolltown in western Pennsylvania and returned from a vist to Germany in 1846 with Benedictine monks from Metten Abbey. He himself became a Benedictine of Saint Vincent Abbey, Latrobe, in 1853. Abbot Boniface Wimmer OSB sent him to Kansas to found a Benedictine monastery. He later served 16 years as pastor of St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He retired at 77 to his beloved St. Benedict Parish in Carrolltown where he died, aged 87, on 29 November 1882 (Schweriner Volkszeitung).
Dinklage Decides
On Wednesday, 21 November, the community of St. Scholastika Abbey, Dinklage, Germany, elected Sr. Franziska Lukas OSB to a 12-year term as abbess. Abbess Franziska, 53, entered Dinklage in 1974. She made her monastic vows at St. Scholastika Abbey on 8 September 1977. Abbess Franziska is the successor of Sr. Máire Hickey OSB who led the community as abbess for 24 years. Sr. Máire also served as the first moderator of the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum.
+ Abbot Philip A. Berning OSB
Rt. Reverend Philip A. Berning, O.S.B., 92, fifth abbot of St. Gregory's Abbey, died peacefully at home at St. Gregory's on Saturday, 17 November 2007, sustained by prayer and strengthened by the sacraments of the Church. Abbot Lawrence Stasyszen OSB led the monks, family, oblates, and friends of Abbot Philip at the Mass of Christian Burial on Tuesday, 20 November.
Sand Springs Benedictine Monastery to Close
The Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration announce the closure of Osage+Monastery in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, projected for the spring of 2008. For the past several years, the sisters have been involved with strategic, long-range planning for their four interdependent monasteries located in Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arizona. The Osage ashram-style monastery was founded in 1980 by five Benedictine Sisters who were inspired by the Vatican II document on the Roman Church's Relations with Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate. The Benedictine Sisters responded through Sister Pascaline Coff OSB who headed the new foundation that began in June 1980 with the encouragement of Archbishop Beltran, the Ordinary of Tulsa at the time. Father Bede Griffiths OSBCam also graced Osage+Monastery by his five visits from South India that included conferences. He inspired and had a deep interest in the community, its oblates, and its volunteer group known as the Friends of the Forest in their quest for contemplative prayer and dialogue.
God's Word -- Illustrated
Abbot Georg Holzherr OSB, former Abbot of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, now serves as chaplain to the Benedictine nuns of St. Lazarus, Seedorf. He shares his preparations for the monastery's daily liturgy online with brilliant and highly appropriate illustrations at <www.gotteswort.ch/>.
New Abbot Ordinary for Montecassino
On 17 November the Holy Father confirmed the election of Dom Pietro Vittorelli OSB, 45, as Abbot Ordinary of Montecassino. Abbot Pietro professed first vows on 13 January 1991 and became a priest on 26 June 1994. The territorial abbey of Montecassino, that includes 73 priests and 121 religious, serves a population of 79,500 souls. Before his election, Abbot Pietro, a monk of Montecassino, served as novice master for the Cassinese Congregation. He is the monastery's 191st abbot.
+ Abbot Otto Lohner OSB
On Sunday, 4 November 2007, Abbot Otto Lohner OSB, 69, of Güigüe (Venezuela) died suddenly and unexpectedly after his health had deteriorated rapidly following what appears to have been infection with a tropical desease. Archabbot Jeremias Schroeder OSB (Sankt Ottilien) reports that, "This is a heavy blow for his abbey and all of our confreres in Latin America. Please keep these communities in your prayers."
October 2007
Election at Saint Leo Abbey
On Saturday, 27 October 2007, the chapter of Saint Leo Abbey elected Father Isaac Camacho OSB, 43, to be the monastery's sixth abbot. The community in Florida numbers 21 monks; 18 capitulars and 3 juniors. Since the resignation of Abbot Patrick Shelton OSB in 1996, three American-Cassinese administrators have served as superiors. The installation of Abbot Isaac is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, 1 December 2007, in the abbey church. Most Rev. Robert Nugent Lynch, Bishop of Saint Petersburg, Florida, would be the principal celebrant.
Sister Joan and the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory University, delivered his inaugural lecture during an Oct. 20-22 visit to Emory in Atlanta, Georgia. During the visit he participated in a conference on science and spirituality, and a sold-out interfaith session on religion as a source of conflict and a resource for peace building. The Dalai Lama's appointment is the most recent outgrowth of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, which was founded in 1998 to bring together the best of Western and Tibetan Buddhist intellectual traditions.
On Sunday, 21 October, Sister Joan Chittister OSB, Erie Benedictines, offered a Christian's response at the First Emory Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. Check out a slideshow of the event.
Sylvesterines Elect Conventual Prior
On Tuesday, 9 October, the monks of the Monastery of the Holy Face, Giulianova, Italy, re-elected Don Leonardo Bux OSB, 53, to be the conventual prior.
Monastic Solidarity
October 7, 2007
To the Buddhist monks of Myanmar/Burma:
In these days when we are so aware of the suffering you have been enduring, we are writing to express our heartfelt solidarity and concern for you.
We are Christian monastic women and men who for many years have been regularly engaging in dialogue with our Buddhist brothers and sisters here in North America. We are inspired by your courage and dedication to nonviolent resistance in the face of brutal repression. Such engagement for the sake of the betterment of your people is a wonderful contemporary example of the Dharma.
Please be assured of our prayers during these trying times.
The Board of Directors of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue
Monastic Interreligious Dialogue is the North American branch of Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM/MID). an international network of Benedictine and Cistercian monks founded in 1978 to promote interreligious dialogue, giving special attention to the dialogue of spiritual experience. The history and accomplishments of MID, as well as past and current issues of The MID Bulletin, can be found on the MID website: <www.monasticdialogue.org>.
Video: Monks "Vanish" at Myanmar Monasteries (National Geographic News, 11 October 2007).
Superior Named for Subiaco
Since 3 October, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Patron of Italy, the Monastery of Saint Benedict (the Sacro Speco) at Subiaco, has a superior. Don Luigi Tiana OSB, 35, monk of Sorres in Sardegna, has been appointed Pro-Prior of the Sacro Speco (Holy Cave). He succeeds Don Beda Paluzzi OSB installed as Prior Administrator at Montvergine in November last year. All of the monasteries belong to the Italian Province of the Subiaco Congregation.
Monte Cassino Remembered
Michael Kimmelman writes "Monte Cassino's troubling legacy of war," a long review of The Day of Battle, the second volume in a trilogy devoted to World War II by Rick Atkinson. The
Day of Battle (Henry Holt, 2007) "picks up with the murky story of the campaign in Sicily and Italy,
about which there is still angry debate as to whether, unlike Normandy, it
was even worth fighting" (New York Times, 2 October 2007).
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