Oblates were invited for Evening Prayer and supper with the sisters before Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville opened the series of Catholic Studies talks with Reconciliation: A Scarred Church Faces a New Century. Quite a sizable crowd gathered in Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel for the presentation.
Abbot John unpacked the metaphor of scars and scarring – long after the original injury, even if the healing is functionally complete, the scar remains. With considerable openness and honesty, Abbot John proposed to look at episodes of recent history that are wounds in the Body of Christ, the Church. His perspective is a valuable one: he has dealt with many painful and difficult wounds in the Church, in society, and within his community in the decade since he was elected abbot in 2000. (There’s a longer report on Abbot John’s talk on Monastic Musings Too.)
