Sr Lynn McKenzie OSB
CIB Moderator

Much has been and is happening in the world of the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum. As previously reported in the last issue of NEXUS Bulletin, at our recent CIB Conference of Delegates meeting at Sant’Anselmo in Rome, the CIB overwhelmingly passed new statutes that will create CIB as an independent juridic organization. We have sent those statutes to the Vatican Dicastery for Consecrated Life asking for recognition and for approval of the statutes. We are hopeful that in the not-too-distant future, we will have approval from the Vatican.

A next major step is the establishment of a CIB office in Rome. We feel especially blessed that Sr Therese Benoit Kabore OSB, who has her doctorate in canon law from Rome, will staff our new office. She is from the monastery of Koubri in Burkina Faso. During the meeting of CIB Symposium in Rome in September, I met with Sr Therese Benoit and her superior, Mother Clementine Naganda, in order to finalize plans to have Sr Therese Benoit in Rome to work part time for CIB and part time at Sant’Anselmo. We are most grateful to Sr Therese Benoit and her community for her generously returning to Rome to serve the larger Benedictine world. We recognize that her coming to Rome is a great gift to us and also a sacrifice for Sr Therese and for her community who will do without her while she is in Rome. Sr Therese Benoit will learn along with us exactly what having a CIB office in Rome means, and how we can best serve the women Benedictines of the world. We are filled with hope for this next step in our CIB history.

Sr Therese Benoit will be living among other Benedictine women in Rome who are studying at Sant’Anselmo. Her presence there among the Benedictine women students, having been there herself as a student, will be very important and will, no doubt, help to bond these women into a temporary monastic community while they are away from their monasteries to study.

Over the last eight years in my service as CIB Moderator, I have been going more and more often to Rome to do CIB business. Having an office there will provide a place not only for Sr Therese Benoit, but also a place for me and other CIB sisters where we can stay among other Benedictine women as we work in the office. I will not be in full-time residence in Rome, but will be coming to Rome from time to time to work in the office and to do other CIB business.

Rejoice with us as we take these next steps into the future of CIB!