Benedictine News and Elections
New Ottilien Congregation Abbot President Javier Aparicio Suarez | Photo by Fr. Patrick Carter OSB
20 January 2025
- During an extraordinary General Chapter in Waegwan, Korea, the Congregation of St. Ottilien elected a new abbot president on 18 January. Abbot President Javier Aparicio Suarez, is a monk of the Archabbey of Sankt Ottilien. Until his election he served as Mission Procurator of the Congregation.
- On 11 January, Pope Francis appointed Abbot Jeremy Driscoll of Mount Angel Abbey, of the Swiss American Congregation, a member of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
- The community of Göttweig Abbey, of the Austrian Congregation, elected Fr. Patrick Schöder its 66th abbot on 8 January 2025. He succeeds Abbot Columban Luser who had been abbot since 2009.
- In Sant‘Anselmo, the new prior Fr. Brendan Coffey, monk and emeritus abbot of Glenstal, of the Congregation of the Annuntiation, took office on 7 January 2025. His predecessor Fr. Mauritius Wilde, prior since 2016, will take a sabbatical and then continue to work at Sant‘Anselmo in several functions.
- Maredsous Abbey, of the Congregation of the Annuntiation elected a new abbot on 19 December: Fr. François Lear. His predecessor, Abbot Bernard Lorent, took over as president of the AIM on January 1st.
- In Kellenried, an abbey of nuns of the Beuronese Congregation, the abbot president appointed Sr. Veronika Kiechle as Prioress Administrator December 17. She follows abbess M. Regina Kuhn.
- On 13 December, the Dicastery for Consecrated Life established a new Congregation of Benedictine nuns in the United States, under the title of “Mother of the Incarnation”. It comprises the monasteries of Petersham, Blanco and Virginia Dale.
- On 19th November, Abbot Primate Jeremias established a Juridical Commission. Its members are Abbot President Franziskus Berzdorf of the Beuronese Congregation, Prior Brendan Coffey of Sant’Anselmo/Glenstal and Prof. Fr. Laurentius Eschlböck of Sant’Anselmo/Vienna.
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