Religious Leader Embraces Change
Wisconsin State Journal :: DAYBREAK :: C1
Saturday, May 19, 2007
William Wineke
I've always thought Roman Catholic religious order members are the most fascinating people in Christendom.
They rise, often to positions of great prominence, while living under oaths of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The Rev. Notker Wolf, abbot primate of the World Benedictine Order, is such a man. He was in Madison last weekend to celebrate an Ecumenical weekend at Holy Wisdom Monastery, the former St. Benedict Center near Middleton.
He's pretty much the epitome of what I mean when I talk about a religious order leader.
Wolf, who is 66, says he had to learn to play electric guitar with the group because "if you want to speak to young people, you have to speak in their language. I love Mozart, but if I play Mozart, I am not speaking the language of the young people with whom I must communicate."
So Wolf, dressed in a black, hooded robe (in one of his letters to the community, he noted he must put the hood up on his robe when he sings in the choir because the roof leaks), talks about how the Rolling Stones have had a profound influence on his music.
The mere fact that Wolf was in Madison is a statement in itself.
The Benedictines have been here since the 1950s and Sisters Joanne Kolliasch and Mary David Walgenbach have each celebrated more than a half-century of service as Benedictine nuns. But a year ago, St. Benedict Center ended its formal affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church and became an ecumenical monastery.
The main effect of the change is that Protestant women may now be official members of the order without first having to convert to Catholicism.
The fact that the abbot primate of an order founded some 1,500 years ago embraces such a change is as notable as the fact that he plays in a rock band.
"I am optimistic about a resurgence in monastic life," he explained. "It corresponds to the search for God that I find in people. There will always be people who are searching for more and this restlessness of the spirit is the origin of monastic life and it is planted by God."
But the church, Protestant and Catholic, has to speak to the religious quest of the people it wants to reach, whether through music or preaching, Wolf suggested.
"I have heard so many sermons that are answers to questions that no one has asked," he said. "I think the major task of the church is to proclaim forgiveness and reconciliation. That's what the world needs."
\ Contact Bill Wineke at bwineke@madison.com or at 252-6146. Read his blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.