New Abbot General

This February, the abbots and abbesses of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance were able to meet for the first time in five years for a General Chapter in Assisi, Italy.

One of our main tasks was to elect a new Abbot General and Councillors.  We elected Dom Bernardus Peeters, formerly abbot of Tilburg in the Netherlands.  Dom Bernardus is pictured here on the right, with Dom Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori, Abbot General of the Order of Cistercians on the left.  Our two Cistercian Orders have grown closer in collaboration in recent years, and we were grateful to have Dom Mauro present to give a Conference on the "Synodality of Communion" and to be a witness at the Abbatial Election.



We were so grateful to be together after so much time, and we found the General Chapter very rich in fraternal sharing and good work for the support of the Order and the monasteries.  Here are some remarks from Dom Bernardus' Conference at the closing of this first part of the General Chapter (Part 2 will take place in September):

“According to church parlance, a Religious Institute celebrates a General Chapter. During this first part we have experienced this intensely. The days that helped prepare for the election of a new Abbot General passed in an atmosphere of peace and unity. During those days we suddenly became aware that synodality is not just a buzzword or a process that takes place outside of us in the universal church, but that we are that synod, that we are together on the way towards God's future. The regions, the commissions, but also each of us personally knew how to really listen to what the Spirit had to say to us. In this way we lived out the words of Dom Mauro-Giuseppe about the synodality of communion. The word synodality continued to resonate, even after the election that certainly ended in a celebration of communion.
…Pope Francis calls on us to return to the original meaning of the term 'synod': a way that you go together, being on the road together. The three focal points are communio, participatio (participation) and missio (the mission and vocation of the church). It is true: our monastic life is synodal by nature, but sometimes it is good to become aware again of the treasure you have.”