December 2003

Christmas Broadcast

Saint John's Abbey broadcast the Christmas Concert and Midnight Mass live on the Internet via RealAudio technology. An archive file of the celebration is available. The location for each Sunday (10:30 a.m. CST) and all special live broadcasts from the Abbey Church will be <http://real.csbsju.edu/ramgen/broadcast/abbey/live.rm>.

Anselm Grün OSB

Pater Anselm Grün OSB, 58, is a monk of Münsterschwarzach Abbey and a popular author for the monastery's Vier Türme Verlag (Four Towers Press).  A new website,  <www.anselm-gruen.de>, is devoted to P. Anselm's biography, books and schedule of lectures.

Ulster Abbey

Stephanie Bell reports in The Belfast Telegraph on 30 November about the newly constructed Holy Cross Abbey in Northern Ireland. In 1998, five Olivetan monks from the Abbey of Bec, Normandy, came to Ulster with the hope of encouraging reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics. The new £1.65 million monastery will open in Rostrevor, Co Down, in January 2004. Holy Cross will also have its own retreat house, a seminar room, a candle-making workshop, and accommodation for a community of 10 monks.

November 2003

+ Burkhard Neunheuser, OSB

P. Burkhard Neunheuser OSB died at Maria Laach Abbey, Germany, on 29 November 2003 nine days before his 100th birthday. He was an expert in Dom Odo Casel's OSB "mystery theology," and he was an early influence on Dom Godfrey Diekmann OSB and others. P. Burkhard taught liturgy at Sant'Anselmo in Rome where he was a faculty member for decades. He remained actively engaged in education until the final months of his life.

Newsletters Updated

Oblate newsletters for Saint Vincent Archabbey and Saint John's Abbey are available online.

Members of the American Benedictine Academy have already received printed copies of the latest issue of the American Monastic Newsletter. Others interested in monastic life can now read the October 2003 issue online. ABA members usually renew subscriptions in December or January. Those who do so will enjoy a discounted registration fee at the ABA Convention, 12-15 August 2004, to be held this year in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

The April 2004 issue of the MID Bulletin, Nr. 72, continues reflections on 25 years of monastic interreligious dialogue. The issue includes an appreciation of Dom Bede Griffiths OSBCam, "Sage of a New Age," by Wayne Teasdale, former MID board member. John Kaltner offers a timely review of No God but God: A Path to Muslim-Christian Dialogue on God's Nature by A. Christian van Gorder (Orbis, 2003).

Abbot Named Bishop in the West Indies

On 10 November 2003, the Holy Father nominated Abbot Francis Alleyne OSB, 51, superior of Mount Saint Benedict Abbey in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago, as bishop of Georgetown, Guyana, West Indies. The bishop-elect was born 3 December 1951 in Point-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago. He professed monastic vows in 1975 and was ordained a Benedictine priest in 1985. The new bishop of Georgetown will exercise pastoral care over 88,000 Catholics, 30 priests and 47 religious. The Diocese of Georgetown encompasses the whole of Guyana. Since 1997, Abbot Francis has served as the Vice-President of the Conference of Religious Superiors of the Antilles. Ad multos annos!

Mount Saint Benedict is located in a Caribbean paradise. The Pax Christi guest house is managed by laity, but visitors are eager to join the informative tour of the monastery given by Father Prior John Pereira OSB. The monks harvest and sell "Pax Honey." It is marked by the exotic flora of the tropical environment. Mount Saint Benedict has belonged to the Congregation of the Annunciation since 1927.

Austrian Monks' New Website

Since 15 October, the Austrian Congregation has provided information at a new and tastefully designed Internet portal <www.benediktiner.at/>. The long, uninterrupted histories of the Austrian abbeys make them centers of culture, and the monks frequently offer major exhibitions. Although many of the abbeys sponsor day or residential schools, the Austrian abbeys also offer numerious opportunities for special or continuing education, spiritual refreshment and hospitality.

Glastonbury Abbey Anniversary

Celebrating 50 years as a monastery, Glastonbury Abbey, Higham, MA, has planned a series of events throughout the year. Glastonbury was founded from Benet Lake Abbey, WI, 14 September 1954. On 9 November Fr. Timothy Joyce OSB will launch his 50-year history of the monastery. On the same day, Kit Dollard, from the retreat center at Ampleforth Abbey, will speak on the Rule of Benedict and the world of business.

Mabee-Grerrer Museum Online

Rev. Gregory Gerrer OSB, a monk of St. Gregory's Abbey, Shawnee, Oklahoma, set out just after the turn of the last century to create a museum for all of Oklahoma to enjoy. His tireless efforts are evidenced by the number and kinds of things he collected. Before he was through, he had amassed some 6,555 objects that included beautiful paintings and sculpture from the middle ages to early 20th-century artifacts of Western civilization, material examples from cultures around the world, botanical specimens, zoological specimens, mineralogical specimens, and oddities such as a block of tacks from the great Chicago fire. Nothing was outside his range of interest.

A website that introduces the collection recently opened at <www.mgmoa.org/>. It features the upcoming exhibition, "Etruscan Treasures: Unveiling Ancient History", 1 June - 31 October 2004. This amazing exhibition of over 200 pieces of Etruscan gold jewelry and 30 pieces of Etruscan bronze and terracotta artifacts is from the private collections of the Director General of the Vatican Museums, Italian Prince Fabrizio Alliata and the Gregorian-Etruscan Museum of the Vatican Museums. This will be the first time for many of the Vatican Museums' pieces to be exhibited abroad and the first time the gold jewlery has ever been exhibited.

Golden Jubilee

From 4-9 November, the Religious Formation Conference celebrates its 50th anniversary at the Jubilee Congress in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference is being held at the Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet. The Priestly Formation Workshop is being held on 5 November.

World Congress of Benedictine Oblates

An organising committee under the direction of the Abbot Primate, in close collaboration with the National Council of Italian Benedictine Oblates, has begun to plan a congress in Rome, 19-25 September 2005. The speakers will represent every continent.

In a recent letter, the orgainzers ask monastic superiors and Oblate Directors to co-operate in the first phase of preparation of a world map of Oblates by sending data about their Oblate programs. Dom Luigi Bertocchi OSB, Guest Master at Sant'Anselmo, will collate the responses.

It is hoped that the congress will help to widen the horizons of the participants, giving a new impulse to Benedictine spirituality under the protection of Saints Benedict and Scholastica.

Oblate Directors, meeting this past July at Atchison, Kansas, established a committee to handle the details of North American participation.

October 2003

+ Dame Felicitas Corrigan OSB

Dame Felicitas (Kathleen) Corrigan OSB, 95, nun of Stanbrook Abbey, died on 7 October. Both The Independent and The Economist pay tribute to her genius, industry and friends. A student of Gregorian chant and early music, DF, as she was known to her friends, resisted at first the call of the cloister. Encouraged by the remarkable Abbess Laurentia McLachlan OSB, Dame Felicitas later wrote of the Benedictine vocation that eventually was hers: "The great enclosure door swung open in answer to the novice's importunate knocking, and presently closed slowly again behind her, shutting out the world and its vanities for ever."

From Where She Stands

Sister Joan Chittister OSB, Mount Saint Benedict Monastery, Erie, spoke 16 October on the CNN news program, "Paula Zahn Now." The segment included several other guests and was part of the network's week-long coverage of Pope John Paul II's 25th anniversary. Sr. Joan spoke briefly about the role of women in the Catholic Church. Her column, "From Where I Stand," is a regular feature of the National Catholic Reporter.

+ Abbot Benito Andreotti OSB

On Thursday, 16 October, Abbot Ordinary Benito Stanislavo Andreotti OSB died peacefully at the hospital in Subiaco. The prelate was well known and appreciated for his goodness and availability to the faithful in his care. As a boy Stanislavo began studies in the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Scholastica in Subiaco and professed vows there in 1940. The monks of Subiaco elected him abbot in 1977. In 1982 he was named titular bishop of Vazari. Dom Benito authored numerous volumes on the history of monasticism in the Valley of the Aniene, and he promoted several important international exhibitions. Abbot Benito resigned as Abbot Ordinary on 3 June 1995.

"Sweet Sacrament Divine"

Father Kilian McDonnell OSB, theologian, poet and monk of Collegeville, writes in The Tablet (UK) about the Holy Father's encyclical, "Ecclesia de Eucharistia," issued on 17 April, Holy Thursday, 2003.

Ecce Sacerdos Magnus

Pope John Paul II will preside at a Mass in St. Peter's Square on Thursday celebrating the anniversary of his election on 16 October 1978 at the same hour. Thus begins a busy schedule of celebrations. On Sunday, 19 October, the Holy Father will proclaim Mother Teresa of Calcutta blessed. For four days most of the world's cardinals will be present for a consistory. The milestone marking 25 years of apostolic ministry has sparked reflection and speculation in the secular press. The Vatican City State will commemmorate the silver anniversary by issuing a new set of stamps for collectors. "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes" is a travelling exhibition of rarely accessible Vatican treasures now on view at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

 

What Was New (spring 1995-; archive)

July, August and September 2003.

The monks of Saint John's Abbey welcome comments, questions and suggestions from readers at the Pilgrim's Parlor. Send items for inclusion in "What's New" to the <Webmaster>.

 

Machine Translation Service

Visit www.microsofttranslator.com/ for a rough and ready translation of this page. First copy this Web address: archive.osb.org/new/current.html

OSB Index | OSB Sitemap
Search | Welcome

OSB Website Store