New Abbot Primate of Benedictine Confederation elected

Abbot Jeremias Schröder

Source: Vatican News

On Saturday 14 September the Congress of Abbots elected the new Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, German Abbot Jeremias Schröder who will be 60 years old in December. He served until now as Abbot President of the Congregation of St Ottilien Archabbey in Eresing, Germany. The election took place during the Congress of Abbots being held at the Primatial Abbey of the Benedictine Order of Sant'Anselmo in Rome on the Aventine Hill. More than 200 Benedictine abbots from all over the world are present.

Abbot Schröder, a Benedictine monk for 40 years, succeeds American Abbot Gregory Polan. He studied philosophy, theology, history and archivistics at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant'Anselmo and at St. Benet's Hall in Oxford. He has also been a visitator to around sixty monasteries, also non-Benedictine.

The new Abbot Primate spoke to Roberto Cetera for Vatican News shortly after his election and commented, "The world is on fire right now. We have here the witness of abbots who come from countries at war in Ukraine and the Holy Land. Next week, during this Congress we abbots will try to reflect together on how we can respond to the motto of our order, which is 'Pax', peace. We will reflect on how we can truly contribute to peace through the work of our communities, through witness, through building bridges between cultures. East and West are separating. The Benedictines have the ancient mission to be in relationship with the Eastern Churches. There is something where we can really make a contribution and we will work on this."

When Pope Francis met with the monks of the Benedictine Confederation on 19 April 2018, he expressed his "consideration and gratitude for the considerable contribution that the Benedictines have brought to the life of the Church, in every part of the world, for nearly 1,500 years" living their motto "Ora et labora et lege. Prayer, work, study."

"In this era, in which people are so busy that they do not have enough time to listen to God's voice, your monasteries and your convents become as oases, where men and women of every age, origin, culture and religion can discover the beauty of silence and rediscover themselves, in harmony with creation, allowing God to re-establish just order in their life. The Benedictine charism of welcoming is extremely valuable for the new evangelization, because it offers you a way to welcome Christ in every person who arrives, helping those who seek God to receive the spiritual gifts he has in store for each of us."

The Benedictine Confederation is made up of Benedictine Congregations and monasteries of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII with the brief 'Summum Semper.' Today there are about 7,500 Benedictine monks in the world and 13,000 Benedictine nuns.