Every two years, the Presidents of the American Benedictine Congregations, both men and women, meet to discuss mutual issues. This year the group of 7 will meet at The Benedictine Sisters of Elizabeth New Jersey. The presenters will be Bishop Elias Lorenzo, the former president of the American Cassinese Congregation, and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, NJ. Since both have had close associations with the Congregation of Consecrated and Apostolic life it is thought that a good item of discussion would be the functioning of the Congregation and the relationship of the religious orders to that congregation.
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Unfortunately, due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the General Chapter of the Swiss-American Congregation scheduled for this year has been postponed and will be held instead June 24-28 of next year.

The new Summary of the Congregation, Liturgical Calendar, Catalog, updated list of former Abbeys of our Congregation, and updated Necrology are now available in the documents section of the website and ready for download. 

Abbot Vincent Bataille, the Abbot President of our Congregation, recently attended the annual meeting of Abbot Presidents in Abadia del Tepeyac, Mexico. Of the 19 Benedictine congregations, 17 were represented at this meeting. Abbot Primate Gregory, the leading Abbot  of the Benedictine Order and originally a member our congregation, highlighted the importance of good human formation in our communities. The Motu Proprio "Vos Estis Lux Mundi," which sets up a system of reporting cases of abuse and neglect, was presented to the Synod as well.

The Abbot Primate also gave a status report of Sant Anselmo, the Benedictine University in Rome.  Various fundraising and renovation projects are being planned or are underway, and he urged the use of the university's new 13 week program for Formators. Some Russian Orthodox have come to Sant Anselmo for conversation, dialogue, and fraternity on three separate occasions. Also, since the issuing of the document "For Orans," there has been increased cooperation between the men and women of the Benedictine Order.

In addition to tending to the business of Synod, the participating Abbots also enjoyed an outing to the Old Basilica of Guadeloupe, where they concelebrated mass and enjoyed beautiful music provided by a small orchestra and choir. The outing concluded with dinner with the local Benedictine sisters and more music.