Elections and nominations
At the abbey of Pluscarden (Scotland, Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation), Fr Simon Piatkowski was installed as Prior Administrator for 2 ½ years. Prior Simon is 45 years old and was born in Poland. A longer report can be found on the website of Pluscarden.
Inkamana Abbey (South Africa, Ottilien Congregation) elected Fr Boniface Kamushisi on 30 November. Abbot Boniface comes from Namibia and is 48 years old. He has previously been novice master and bursar of the community, and prior administrator since 2021. Inkamana currently has 33 members. The community runs one of the best schools in the country, and is responsible for several parishes.
Abbot President Ignasi Fossas of the Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation appointed a new president for the Congregation of Ste Bathilde, Mother M.-Fabienne Huyon, prioress of St Thierry. Ste Bathilde is a Congregation with nine monasteries and almost 200 nuns according to the 2014 Catalogus. A good number of the nuns live in Vietnam. The monastery in Paris-Vanves hosts the secretariate of the AIM.
The Dicastery has recently appointed pontifical commissaries for two communities deemed in need of such an intervention. Archbishop em. Ignazio Sanna (born 1942) was appointed to this function at the monastery of Farfa (Italy, Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation). In early October, Cardinal Fortunato Frezza rather suddenly replaced Abbot Luigi Tiana as papal commissary for the Congregation of the Oblates of Santa Francesca Romana, an ancient and venerable Benedictine community here in Rome at the monastery of Tor de’ Specchi.
AIM council looks to the future
In late November, the Council of the Alliance Inter-Monastères met at Poblet, a Cistercian Abbey in Catalonia, Spain. The incoming new president, Abbot Bernard Lorent of Maredsous Abbey, chaired a meeting for which some 27 participants from the Benedictines, Cistercians and Trappists had gathered. With a new president, an outgoing general secretary, a new abbot primate and major developments in the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum, as well as a world that is undergoing significant transformation, it seemed a good time to start a review of the tasks and structures of the AIM. During a creative meeting, the council collected ideas and proposals that will help us to develop the AIM as a hub for communion and cooperation among Benedictine men and women, Cistercians and Trappists. Expect to hear more about this!
Congress 2024 follow-up
The Congress of Abbots 2024 left us with many tasks, including a deeper study of aspects of brothers as abbots, the preparation of The Benedictine Jubilee 529-2029, and a draft Benedictine calendar that must be submitted to the Holy See. Work on these is slowly starting, but “slow” is the operative word. One project that is already well under way is a training program for new abbots. The working group has already made some proposals and you will soon hear more. Patience, please! The other tasks are not forgotten, they simply require more time.
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