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AIM International Council Meets at US Secretariat The annual November AIM International Council meeting was held at Mount Saint Benedict Monastery in Erie, PA. It was the second time the two-day November meeting was held in the USA but only the first time at the sponsoring monastery of the US Secretariat. The Council met in three joint sessions with the US Board of Trustees. Both groups also met separately to attend to annual business. In their joint sessions the groups heard updates on monastic communities that have been founded in the United States since 1960, and communities founded outside of the United States by US abbeys and monasteries. Sr. Gisela Happ, OSB, Secretary General of AIM, shared extensive information on the latest grant requests received at the AIM International offices in Vanves, France, outside of Paris. Most interesting was a morning panel which began with presentations by five Council and Board members on ongoing formation efforts and experiences within their congregations and communities. After their presentations an open forum of further experiences, concerns and questions led to much discussion and idea-sharing on this important issue of community life. The Council members who arrived early were able to visit various corporately-sponsored ministries of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, the AIM USA book service system, and the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, a family-friendly research and information Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, visits with AIM President, Fr. Martin Neyt, OSB, and Abbot Ugo Tagni, OCist. center on environmental topics, particularly those of the Great Lakes region and Erie’s Presque Isle State Park. Attending the 2009 AIM meeting were Council members: Abbots John Denburger, OCSO, and Timothy Kelly, OCSO, with Erie Benedictine Sisters Bernadette and Cecilia Sullivan, OSB. Sr. Aquinata Böckmann, OSB, Missionary Benedictines of Tutzing; Fr. Mark Butlin, OSB, AIM International team; Sr. Placid Dolores, OSB, AIM International office; Sr. Gisela Happ, OSB, Secretary General of AIM; Sr. Judith Heble, OSB, CIB Moderator; Abbot Timothy Kelly, OSB, President: American Cassinese Congregation; Abbot Timothy Kelly, OCSO, Procurator General: Trappists; Fr. Martin Neyt, OSB, President of AIM; Archabbot Jeremias Schröder, OSB, President: St. Ottilien Congregation; Abbot Ugo Tagni, OCist, Rector: St. Bernard College; Abbot Armand Veilleaux, OCSO, Abbey of Scourmont; Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, OSB, Sant’ Anselmo; Sr. Adelaida Ygrubay, OSB, Vicaress, Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. AIM USA Board of Trustees members in attendance were: Abbot John Denburger, OCSO, Our Lady of Genesee; Archabbot Justin DuVall, OSB, St. Meinrad Archabbey; Sr. Michaela Hedican, prioress: St. Bede Monastery; Sr. Kathryn Huber, OSB, AIM USA Board president; Abbot Neal Roth, St. Martin’s Abbey; Prior Konrad Schaefer, OSB, Monasterio NS de Los Angeles; Abbot Paul Mark Schwan, OCSO, Abbey of New Clairvaux; Sr. Anne Shepard, OSB, prioress: Mount St. Scholastica Monastery; Sr. Christine Vladimiroff, OSB, prioress: Mount St. Benedict Monastery; Sr. Susan Doubet, OSB, AIM USA. 4 Benedict saw the entire world in a single ray of light. (Dialogues)
From Our Mission Monasteries Monasterio Trapense Santa María de Miraflores, Chile Monastic life in the Benedictine tradition was not part of colonial Chile, although Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans and others have always played an important part in evangelization, right up to the present. The first successful Benedictine establishment, now the Abadía de la Santísima Trinidad de Las Condes, was made in 1938, first by monks from England and later from Germany. Our own OCSO community is the second monastery in Chile, founded in 1960 from St. Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, MA. In 1966, Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky assumed the paternity of our monastery and aided us substantially for a number of years. The first location of our monastery at La Dehesa, just outside Santiago, in time came to be seen as provisional, given the continued expansion of the capital. Santiago was growing around us— encircling us and we did not find this a setting conducive to our Trappist way of life. The community undertook the process of relocating, completed in 1986 with the move to Miraflores, near the city of Rancagua, 80 km (50 miles) south of Santiago. In this beautiful and conveniently located spot, the final transition from foundation to locally autonomous community nears completion. All offices, including that of prior, are presently filled by vocations nurtured in the local community. Several of the founding monks are still with us but the majority of the 20 members are Chilean. Among the latter are three priests, five other solemnly professed, three juniors and one novice. While our community focus is monastic, with no claim to apostolic activity, from the beginnings in La Dehesa there was always keen sensibility regarding the social inequalities observable within walking distance of the monastery. During our first years, Chile, a land where democratic traditions were understood, underwent a social upheaval, going from attempted reforms, to a Marxist regime, to a military takeover and 16 years of dictatorship. It was impossible not to relate our monastic life to the dire straits of the people who came to us for help. A worker on the community farm. The moment for undertaking the move to a new location coincided with a certain clarity regarding possible responses to the social crisis around us. Within a brief time it was decided that proceeds from sale of the La Dehesa property which would exceed our needs of relocation, should be earmarked for low cost housing by Prior Jesús Diez-Caballero, OCSO for the many who otherwise would not foreseeably attain it. This decision set in motion a careful process, which after unavoidable delays, finally bore fruit in 1991, in the form of a civilly established Foundation administered by local professionals, under whose Trappist monks of Miraflores at work in their kitchen. mandate the housing venture has proceeded and continues, with results surpassing expectations. The sale of La Dehesa also gave us the funds to invest in the farm at Miraflores, and eventually establish industries adapted to the monastic routine. The harvest from the farm is mainly used in the monastery. Besides farm operations now handled largely by employees, remunerative community work presently centers in a large-scale production of fine chocolates and honey. The candy and honey are sold at local stores. In the last 20 years Chile has changed greatly with much material progress. At the same time the country is no stranger to the agnostic, secularizing tendencies of the age, which engulf especially the younger generation. It would seem that the unpretentious witness of monastic life could prove timely, at a point where the traditional Catholic subculture of the country must quickly rework and renew its symbols. It would appear that as Latin America takes hold of its destiny from the grassroots, a serious monastic presence can testify to the truest longings, and to the gift of faith which meets them. Benedict saw the entire world in a single ray of light. (Dialogues) 5
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