In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!
First of all, welcome, good morning to you all!

I greet the Abbot General, who has been newly elected, and I thank all of you for the gift that your monastic life represents, recalling the entire Church to the primacy of God as the source of joy and the basis of personal and social transformation.

As at the beginning of your history, when Saint John Gualbert obeyed the vocation that impelled him to greater authenticity, we again find ourselves at the dawn of a new millennium in which, amid many fears, the entire world seems to be reshaping itself. It is not a question of abandoning the challenges of our time, but of dwelling within them with the depth of those who are silent and listen to the Word of God, so as to bring it to light in a changing culture.

The fragility of those beginnings can inspire and console the present fragilities. We are often less strong than in the past, less young, less numerous, at times harmed by human limitations and mistakes, but the Gospel welcomed sine glossa will never cease to spread the fragrance of its beauty. Let nothing hold you back from the original need to reform, renew and simplify, to the benefit of everyone, that Christian life that is still able to broaden the horizons and the breath of every human existence.

As early as 1973, Saint Paul VI recalled your Founder and the Congregation’s first steps in this way: “He wanted a ‘ novum institutum’ that would return to the genuine sources of prayer and the apostolate, as the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, and his Saint Benedict had done; and the first friars, who gathered around him in Vallombrosa, indeed sought and found that ‘ nova conversio’, which was felt as a wellspring of personal sanctification, but which would likewise prove to be a leaven of new life” [1].

Pope Montini – who knows, perhaps many of you were young monks at that time… I see that some of you are very young though! – insisted on the current relevance of those beginnings, observing that “the renewal of religious orders, and of the Church in general, in the clergy and in the laity, are the most lively and impassioned points of the Council and post-Council period” [2].

My beloved predecessor, Pope Francis, tirelessly urged all of us to continue the renewal of the Church promoted by Vatican Council II. We are still asked to overcome self-referentiality, to be poorer and to listen to the poor, to intensify the bonds of communion. In particular, may communion with the other Congregations of the daughters and sons of Saint Benedict help you to remain faithful to the Rule, in dialogue with the contemporary world. Indeed, the quest for a spirituality in which prayer, work and joy intertwine in fidelity to everyday places and things, is always new. Be attentive and hospitable witnesses to it.

I encourage you to look forward with hope, with an affectionate thought also for all your confrères, while I impart to you my heartfelt Apostolic Blessing. Thank you!

[1] Paul VI,  Address to the General Council of the Benedictine Congregation of Vallombrosa, 28 March 1973.

[2  Ibidem.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 28 June 2025