What Was New

March 2008

Easter Fire

A fire on Easter Sunday, 23 March, damaged Our Lady of Rickenbach, the healthcare facility for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. The alarm sounded around 8 a.m., just as the sisters were gathering for Easter Morning Prayer. With assistance from guests, staff members, neighbors, and first responders, each of the 25 sisters in residence was evacuated safely to the motherhouse. "It could be several weeks or up to two months before the residents will be able to move back in. In the meantime, the sisters have been deluged with offers of assistance from kind-hearted people throughout the area" (Maryville Daily Forum 27 March 2008).

Good Friday March

For the 28th time, the Benedictine Sisters of Erie organized a silent, 8-mile march on Good Friday. About 100 participants stopped at several significant places along the route from the Cathedral to the Sisters' home, Mount St. Benedict Monastery, to reflect on contemporary social and political issues. "Some have been nailed by poverty. Others, with violence, and still others, a lack of health care" (Erie Times·News, 22 March 2008).

+ P. Cassià M. Just OSB

On Wednesday morning, 12 March, Abbot Emeritus P. Cassià M. (Joan) Just i Riba OSB, 81, died at Montserrat Abbey. He had been abbot there from 1966 to 1989 during the difficult years after the Council. He had been a professed monk for 64 years. Father Cassià was a talented musician. He studied music, organ, and Gregorian chant at the Pontifical Institute of Music in Rome and organ in Paris with André Marchal and Norbert Dufourcq. In 1981 he published Glosses on a Re-reading of the Benedictine Rule (Montserrat). He exercised a notable spiritual influence on the religious and clergy of Catalonia. The Abbot of Montserrat, P. Josep M. Soler OSB, presided at his funeral on 14 March 2008.

Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum

At their 31 January to 4 February 2008 meeting, the Conference of Benedictine Prioresses elected Prioress Nancy Bauer OSB, Saint Benedict Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota, to be a Region 9 Conference delegate for Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum (CIB). Monastery Immaculate Conception, Ferdinand, Indiana, hosted the meeting where approximately fifty prioresses attended.

The CIB is comprised of all the communities of Benedictine women recognized by the Abbot Primate and enlisted in the Catalogus Monasteriorum OSB.

Delegates attend the annual CIB Conferences that are held at Benedictine monasteries of women around the world. In September 2008, the CIB Conference will meet in Rome with the Congress of Abbots. The 2009 meeting will be held in Croatia.

New Abbot for Kornelimünster

On Wednesday, 12 March, the monks of Kornelimünster Abbey elected Father Friedhelm Tissen OSB, 54, to become abbot for an unspecified term. In April 1976 he professed first vows at Gerleve Abbey. Bishop Reinhard Lettmann ordained him a priest on 27 August 1981 at Gerleve after Dom Friedhelm's studies in Salzburg and Rome. In 1984 Fr. Friedhelm went temporarily to Kornelimünster. In 1989 he transferred his monastic vows there and, at the same time, transferred from the Beuronese Congregation to the Subiaco Congregation. At Kornelimünster he served as cantor, guestmaster, novicemaster, and prior. Many in the Diocese of Aachen look to him as a retreat director and spiritual mentor. On 13 March Abbot President Bruno Marin OSB confirmed the election and installed Abbot Friedhelm in office during a liturgical service. Es lebe hoch!

ABA Convention 2008

President Theresa Schumacher OSB outlines plans for the biennial convention of the American Benedictine Academy in the current issue of the American Monastic Newsletter. The theme for the convention that runs from 7-10 August is "Monastic Spirituality: Expanding Merton's Vision." Sacred Heart Monastery and Mount Marty College in Yankton, SD, will serve as hosts.

Sister Nancy Miller OSB Elected Prioress

Following a weekend of prayer and discernment, the Sisters of Annunciation Monastery, Bismarck, North Dakota, elected Sister Nancy Miller OSB as their eighth Prioress on Sunday, March 9, 2008. Sister Nancy will serve for a term of four years to begin on May 16 with her installation. Most recently, Sister Nancy has served her community as administrative assistant. In this ministry, she supervised dietary nutrition, maintenance, and the day-to-day operations of the monastery.

Sister Michelle Farabaugh OSB, Prioress, St. Benedict Monastery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Sister Anne Stedman OSB, Prioress, Benet Hill Monastery, Colorado Springs, Colorado, facilitated the discernment prior to the election. Sister Michaela Hedican OSB, President, Federation of St. Benedict, presided at the election.

Election at Saint Bede Monastery

On Saturday, 1 March 2008, the Sisters of Saint Bede Monastery, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, elected Sister Michaela Hedican OSB as Prioress. Her four-year term begins with her installation on June 8. Sister Colleen Haggerty OSB, Saint Benedict's Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota, facilitated the discernment process that preceded the election. Sister Nancy Bauer OSB, Vice President of the Federation of St. Benedict and Prioress of Saint Benedict's Monastery, presided at the election. Presently Sister Michaela serves as President of the Federation of St. Benedict. With the assistance of the Federation Council, Sister Michaela will complete her term as President (July 2009) along with being the Prioress of Saint Bede Monastery.

Administrator Named for Pecos Benedictine Monastery

Having been appointed by the Holy Father President of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology, Abbot Christopher M. Zielinski, OSB Oliv, resigned as abbot of Pecos Abbey. The newsletter of the Olivetan General Council announced that "the Abbot General [Michelangelo M. Tiribilli, OSB Oliv,] with the consent of the Definitory has appointed Fr. Stephen H. Coffey, OSB Oliv, Superior ad nutum of the Pecos Community. His mandate will last at least two years." Abbot Christopher installed Father Stephen during the celebration of Vespers on Tuesday, 4 March 2008.

Benedictines to Cuba

Archabbot Jeremias Schröder OSB confirmed on Wednesday, 5 March, that the Ottilien Missionary Benedictines have accepted an invitation from Jaime Cardinal Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of Havana, to found a monastery on the island. The archabbot plans to send four monks from various monasteries of the congregation to Cuba before the end of the year. He is delighted with the new possibilities in Cuba:

"The role of the church in society is no longer rejected in Cuba. It is again valued. The cardinal succeeded in achieving a reasonable level of understanding with the government. Thus relations with the church in Cuba clearly improved, and one might say, 'liberalized.' This development is also a result of the visit of Pope John Paul II in January 1998. A further impulse was surely the February 20-26 visit of Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Pope's trip" (orden-online).

+ Father Egon Javor OSB

On Wednesday, 5 March, the monks of Woodside Priory, Portola Valley, California, bury their founder, Father Egon Javor OSB. Father Egon, 91, died on Sunday, March 2, 2008, supported by the prayers of his confreres. He professed his first monastic vows at the venerable Archabbey of Pannonhalma. In 1948, due to oppression by the Communist regime in Hungary, Fr. Egon fled the country and immigrated to the United States. In 1956, together with five other Hungarian Benedictines, he founded Woodside Priory and School, where he labored ceaselessly for more than 50 years. In 1976, Woodside Priory became dependent on Saint Anselm Abbey, Manchester, New Hampshire, in the American-Cassinese Congregation. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 7 p.m. at Saint Pius Church, Redwood City, CA. May eternal light shine upon him.

February 2008

+ Abbot Gérard Calvet OSB

On Thursday, 28 February, the founder and first abbot of Le Barroux Abbey, Dom Gérard Calvet OSB, died. Born at Bordeaux on 18 November 1927, Dom Gérard professed first vows at Tournay on 4 February 1951. He was ordained a priest on 13 May 1956. Having founded the community of Bédoin in 1970, he undertook construction of Le Barroux Abbey. After the abbey's canonical recognition, the Holy See named Dom Gérard its first abbot. At 75 years of age, he resigned as abbot in November 2003. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the abbey on Monday, 3 March 2008, at 10 a.m. Requiescat in pace.

Monastic Spirituality

Monasticism is well represented in Commonweal magazine's latest issue (29 February 2008) devoted to spirituality. In "Out of Great Silence" William J. Pease offers extended reflections on an unexpectedly popular German film about La Grande Chartreuse. Pease had spent some years among the Carthusians so his insights into the film, Die Große Stille (2005) are informed and enlightening. Repeated visits to Saint John's Abbey Cemetery, Minnesota, prompted Congregational minister Gilbert Friend-Jones OblSB to share his musings about death and the saints in "A Cloud of Witnesses." The Last Word was given to Fr. Joel Rippinger OSB, monastic historian at Marmion Abbey, Illinois. Forty years in a Benedictine monastery inform his honest and, ultimately, hope-filled essay entitled, "Bare Ruined Choirs."

Austrian Monasteries

To mark the release of a series of six €10 silver coins honoring the monasteries of Austria, the national mint has mounted a splendid exhibition, "The Great Abbeys of Austria," that runs from 26 February to 14 August 2008. Highlights of the exhibition include a Mass book now believed to have been printed by Gutenberg four years earlier than his famous Bible, a snuff-box used by Mozart, and, from Klosterneuburg, a gold-plated, silver and jeweled chalice with miniature enamels.

Schwester Gisela Happ OSB Profiled

Sister Gisela Happ OSB is the General Secretary of AIM (Alliance Intermonastères). A professed member of St. Hildegard Abbey, Eibingen, Germany, she works at the Saint Bathilde Priory in Vanves near Paris. Abbot Primate Dr. Notker Wolf OSB credits her for bringing AIM to a highly professional level, making it an excellent tool for helping poor monasteries in the developing world. Yearly S. Gisela manages support for about 400 monasteries and dispenses almost €1.5M yearly (Rheinischer Merkur, 21 Feb 2008).

Web Changes

On 30 January 2008, Abbot Primate Dr. Notker Wolf OSB appointed Dom Giacinto Kurczynski OSB Silv as Webmaster of the Benedictine Confederation. Father Giacinto is a monk of St. Vincent's Conventual Priory, Bassano Romano (VT) Italy. The Abbot Primate offered most sincere thanks to Rev. Fr. Dom Giovanni Paolo Abrahamowicz OSB, Prior of the Abbey of Saint Paul outside the Walls, with best wishes for a good job to the new staff of the OSB-International website.

Hesychia House of Prayer in New Blaine, Arkansas, has shortened the name of its website from <scholasticafortsmith.org> to <stscho.org>.

The official website of Benedictine women, CIB (Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum), is currently being re-constructed and updated. The address has changed slightly to become <www.benedictines-cib.org>. The latest CIB Newsletter can be found there.

Benetvision, the publishing house of the Erie Benedictines, announces a simplified address: <www.benetvision.org>. The email address is <benetvision@benetvision.org>.

Benedictine Monastery Katibunga, Mpika, Zambia, has opened a website at <www.osb.org/katibunga>.

Election in Australia

On Wednesday morning, 20 February 2008, the monks of St. Benedict's Monastery, Arcadia, NSW, gathered in their priory's chapter room, and, in the presence of Abbot General Michael Kelly OSB Silv, elected as their new conventual prior, Fr. Bernard McGrath OSB Silv. Prior Bernard, 59, professed vows on 22 February 1969 and became a priest on 10 May 1975. Saint Benedict's Monastery was founded in 1961 and became a conventual priory in 1983. The priory belongs to the Sylvestrine Congregation. The Abbot General, elected 15 September 2007, also professed his monastic vows in Arcadia.

Benedictine Published

Sister Edith Bogue OSB wrote one of the chapters in Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War, edited by Rachel MacNair and Stephen Zunes (Praeger, April 2008). Her chapter is entitled, "Does the Seamless Garment Fit? American Public Opinion." Benedictines and their friends receive a 20% discount by using the code, "F238" when ordering the book online from the publisher.

Sister Edith is associate professor of sociology at the College of Saint Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota. Her lively and attractive Web blog, "Monastic Musings" features topics of interest to her current students and to monastics in general. Having learned photography at a young age from her father, Sister Edith has posted over 500 of her own photos at Flickr.

Death of the Grand Master

Benedictines mourn the death of a former student, colleague, neighbor, and friend. +Fra' Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, educated at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, 78th Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, died in Rome on Thursday, 7 February. For a time he taught Modern Languages (French and Spanish) at Worth Abbey School, Sussex. Elected in 1988, Fra' Andrew Bertie was the only Englishman to serve as Grand Master in the Order's 990 year history. His body will lie in state in the chapel of Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine across the square from Sant'Anselmo. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, 16 February. In 2003 Saint John's University, Minnesota, honored the Grand Master with a Doctor of Laws degree. The state funeral will take place 8 March 2008 in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Requiescat in pace.

Monk Named to Staff of Præsidium

Father Elias Lorenzo OSB, monk of St. Mary's Abbey, Morristown, New Jersey, has accepted an invitation to join the staff of Præsidium Inc. The Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) has contracted with Præsidium to train and accredit religious institutes of men and societies of apostolic life throughout the country as safe environments for children. "Father Elias will be the first canon lawyer on Præsidium's staff of dedicated psychologists, social workers, and civil lawyers" (Abbey Update).

Ash Wednesday

The Holy Father began the solemn season of Lent with a procession from Sant'Anselmo to Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. In his homily he stressed the importance of prayer. "Prayer nourishes hope, because nothing more than praying with faith expresses the reality of God in our life" (AP).

The New Monasticism

Molly Worthen writes about the "The Unexpected Monks" she has found among evangelical Protestants (The Boston Globe, 3 Feb 2008). "The New Monastics," she explains, "come from a variety of religious backgrounds, from Presbyterian to Pentecostal. All share a common frustration with what they see as the overcommercialized and socially apathetic culture of mainstream evangelicalism. They perceive a 'spiritual flabbiness in the broader church and a tendency to assimilate into a corrupt, power-hungry world,' writes New Monastic author Scott Bessenecker in his recent book The New Friars."

Pauline Hymn

On 21 January 2008, as part of his general communication in the press room of the Holy See, Cardinal Andrea di Montezemolo, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St Paul's outside the Walls, presented the hymn for the Year of St Paul. "You Have Been Raised with Christ" is the title of the hymn for the Year of St Paul, composed by Fr. Johannes Paul Abrahamowicz OSB, monk of the Abbey of St Paul's outside the Walls. The hymn was inspired by the life of prayer and of pastoral service that take place around the Tomb of the Apostle of the Gentiles. The text makes reference to the letters to the Romans and to the Colossians. The melody is easy to sing, in unison or in three parts, and can be accompanied by various instruments such as the organ, guitar, or other instruments. The music and the lyrics are available in various languages on the abbey's website.

January 2008

Trappists Offer Refuge in Kenya

"Thousands are on the move across western Kenya. With the continued violence they seek sanctuary wherever they can. In the Rift Valley, which has seen the worst of the violence, one religious order has opened its doors to hundreds of people. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow is the first international TV journalist to reach the monastery in Kipkelion and from there he sent this report." Dom Dominic Vincent Nkoyoyo OCSO is the superior of Our Lady of Victory Abbey.

There are nine Benedictine communities in Kenya.
 

Benedictine Hospitality

Katie Thomas writes in the The New York Times about the generous hospitality to Super Bowl fans being offered by the Benedictine Sisters in Arizona. Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery, Scottsdale, is opening the 10 bedrooms of its spiritual retreat center to some of the 125,000 football fans expected for the game on Sunday at the University of Phoenix stadium, 3.5 miles away from the monastery. "A Super Bowl doesn't happen in a city very often," said Sister Linda Campbell OSB, the prioress of the monastery where rooms usually go for $105 a night. "Then we heard of all the folks that were renting out homes and we thought, wow, that would be something that would be beneficial to the monastery and help us to help others" (31 Jan 2008).

On the other side of the Atlantic, Graham Snowdon published a profile of Br. Christopher Greener OSB, 38, the Guestmaster at Douai Abbey, Berkshire, in The Guardian. When asked if it wasn't incongrous for a peaceful Benedictine monastery to host, as Douai did recently, staff from the Ministry of Defence, he replied, "Oh no.... There's a really big tradition of hospitality in the rules of St Benedict, where all guests are to be treated as Christ. It's a very serious thing" (19 Jan 2008). Formerly manager of a Ladbrokes betting shop, Brother Christopher now happily manages the abbey's 22 guests rooms.

Explaining Monastic Life

Dom Jean-Pierre Longeat OSB, abbot of St. Martin Abbey, Ligugé, explained the basics of monastic life and the place of monasteries in society in the course of a long interview published in La Croix (25 January 2008). He defines monastic life as a "laboratory of human mystery, concentrated in a space and a time where all (common life, work, liturgical prayer, or meditation) is oriented towards the search for God and work on the self that allows one to meet others on a more profound level.... Monastic life doesn't make one better automatically, it is a way of conversion, of progression in humanity, growth."

100th Week of Christian Unity

Friday, 25 January 2008, the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, marks the end of the 100th week of prayer for Christian unity. To mark the occasion Zenit News Agency interviewed P. Johannes Abrahamowicz OSB, prior of Saint Paul Outside the Walls Abbey, about the relationship between conversion and ecumenical unity. His reply suggests a move from praying together to working together. As an example he cites the cooperative support of Catholic, Anglican, and some Orthodox communities for the Italian lay organization, AIFO, concerned with the cure of leprosy worldwide.

Andrea Cardinal Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo JCD, archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul, announced on Monday, 21 January, that the basilica will set aside a special chapel for ecumenical prayer during the Year of Saint Paul that begins on 28 June 2008. See related interview with Fr. Edmund Power OSB, Abbot of St. Paul's (H2O Media Service, 24 Jan 08).

Pilgrims Swarm to Einsiedeln

Vatican Radio reports that a new system for counting the visitors to the Swiss national shrine at Einsiedeln Abbey reports that in 2007 nearly 400,000 pilgrims visited. Among them were over 1,000 groups from 17 language groups. One of the Benedictines says that the monks are reading the numbers with care, but the community is naturally pleased with the great interest in the abbey.

Benedictine Witness

Sister Catherine Wybourne OSB, prioress of Holy Trinity Monastery near Wantage, Oxfordshire, explains the Benedictine vocation in "The Faith Column," a feature of New Statesman magazine. Sister Catherine's series of articles began on 22 January 2008. Holy Trinity Monastery is a diocesan institute founded in 2004 by three former members of Stanbrook Abbey.

+Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler SDB

Cardinal Stickler, 97, former archivist and librarian of the Vatican Secret Archives and Library, died in Rome on Wednesday, 12 December. He had been the oldest living cardinal. The Holy Father described the cardinal as a "sincere and zealous collaborator of the Holy See" who in all his duties "provided precious testimony of fervent faithfulness to Christ and to the Church" (Zenit). Cardinal Stickler's final resting place will be in his titular church, San Giorgio in Velabro.

Paul Augustin Cardinal Mayer OSB, the only Benedictine cardinal, succeeds Stickler as the oldest living cardinal. From 1939 to 1966 Dom Augustin taught dogmatic theology at Sant'Anselmo before his election as abbot of Metten Abbey, Bavaria. When Pope John Paul II named him a cardinal in May 1985, Mayer became prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments until July 1988 when the pope named him president of the pontifical commission, Ecclesia Dei.

 

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