Events, Elections and Appointments | May-June
Abbot Primate Jeremias shares short excerpts of Confederation news.
7 June 2025
- On June 2, the monks of Ottobeuren of the Bavarian Congregarion elected Fr Christoph M. Kuen Prior Administrator of the abbey for a period of 3 years. The election took place after the end of the mandate of Abbot Johannes Schaber.
- On May 28, the General Chapter of the Silvestrine Congregation elected a new Abbot General, Fr Shamindra Jayawardena. Abbot General Shamindra is 53 years old and has served as Conventual Prior of Ampitiya since 2013. Ampitiya is the oldest Benedictine monastery in Asia, first established in 1875.
The election followed after the end of the mandate of Abbot General Antony Puthenpurackal. Abbot Antony was also a member of the Permanent Commission of Abbot Presidents. In accordance with the Lex Propria, the abbot primate appointed Abbot President Ignasi Fossas of the Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation as substitute. - On 23 May, Fr Coert Biesjot was appointed prior administrator of Slangenburg, Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation, after the resignation of Abbot Henry Vesseur. On 6 June Fr Coert Biesjot was also appointed prior administrator of Teteringen/Oosterhout, of the same Congregation, which had previously been administered by Abbot Henry Vesseur.
- On May 22, Pope Leo XIV. appointed new secretary for the Dicastery for Consecrated Life. Sr. Tiziana Merletti is a canonist and former superior general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. With this appointment Pope Leo XIV followed the precedent of Pope Francis who had started to appoint women to functions traditionally reserved for titular archbishops and cardinals.
- Also on May 22, the president of the AIM Abbot em. Bernard Lorent appointed Fr Charbel Paz de Lys new Secretary General of the AIM. Fr Charbel is a monk of Le Barroux, a monastery directly under the Abbot Primate.
- On May 21 a symposium at Solesmes honoured Abbot Prosper Guéranger at Solesmes on the 150th anniversary of his death. Guéranger was one the most important figures of the Benedictine revival of the 19th century. A process for canonisation is under way.
- On May 17, Fr Maximilien Pietrzak received the abbatial blessing as abbot of En Calcat, of the Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation. He had been elected already on on February 7.
- Abbot Donato Ogliari of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, of the Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation, held one of the meditations for the pre-conclave on April 29th - Apart from our prayers probably the most meaningful Benedictine contribution to the conclave.
- The CIB publishes an annual newsletter with a lot of information about the female branch of our family. You can subscribe to it by writing to Sr Mary Luke Jones at ljonesosb@benedictine.com.
New Abbot Elected for Mariastein Abbey
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Receives Heufelder Prize
Fr. Alfred Eichmann Elected Abbot of Lambrecht Abbey
Benedictine Bishop Hanke Concludes Decades of Service
Notes from the Aventine | May-June
-
Events, Elections and Appointments | May-June