The Reverend Lord Anselm van der Linde | |
---|---|
Abbot Emeritus, Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau | |
![]() Anselm van der Linde in November 2014 | |
Church | Roman Catholic |
Appointed | 2009 |
Term ended | 1 August 2018 |
Predecessor | Kassian Lauterer |
Other post(s) | Abbas Territorialis Maris Stellae. |
Personal details | |
Born | Hendrik 24 September 1970 Roodepoort, South Africa |
Alma mater | University of Pretoria |
Anselm van der Linde O.Cist. (born 24 September 1970) is a Cistercian abbot of the common observance, an Austrian citizen born in South Africa. He was Abbot of the Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau from 2009 to 2018.
Van der Linde was born in Roodepoort, South Africa, and studied at the University of Pretoria. In 1994 he took vows in the Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. He became the 53rd abbot of this abbey in 2009, succeeding Kassian Lauterer, [1] and is member of the Austrian Bishops' Conference. His election was approved by Pope Benedict the same year. Van der Linde was ordained and consecrated by Maurus Esteva Alsina. [2] As abbot he was responsible for 21 Cistercian monasteries, both male and female, in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
Van der Linde announced his reasons for resigning on 12 July 2018. He said he was exhausted by the effort to recover from the sexual abuse of minors by clerics in the 1960s, including a lengthy legal process that ended in defeat and the conclusion of a financial settlement with two victims of abuse. He cited as well reforms to establish the abbey's economic viability and restore its reputation. Pope Francis accepted his resignation at the age of 47 on 1 August 2018. He was succeeded on an interim basis by an apostolic administrator, Vinzenz Wohlwend, [3] [4] who was named Abbot on 23 November 2018. [5]
Jerome George Hanus, O.S.B. is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, presiding as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dubuque in Iowa from 1995 until 2013.
A territorial abbey is a particular church of the Catholic Church comprising defined territory which is not part of a diocese but surrounds an abbey or monastery whose abbot or superior functions as ordinary for all Catholics and parishes in the territory. Such an abbot is called a territorial abbot or abbot nullius diœceseos. A territorial abbot thus differs from an ordinary abbot, who exercises authority only within the monastery's walls or to monks or canons who have taken their vows there. A territorial abbot is equivalent to a diocesan bishop in Catholic canon law.
The Catholic Church in Austria is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope in Rome. The Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops, the bishops and the abbot of territorial abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. The Austrian church is the largest Christian Confession of Austria, with 4.64 million members in 2023.
Father Alberich or Alberik Zwyssig was a Cistercian monk who composed in 1841 the Swiss Psalm, the present Swiss national anthem.
Wettingen Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in Wettingen in the Swiss canton of Aargau. It was founded in 1227 and dissolved during the secularisation of 1841, but re-founded at Mehrerau in Austria in 1854. The buildings are listed as a heritage site of national significance.
Loccum Abbey is a Lutheran monastery, formerly a Cistercian abbey, in the town of Rehburg-Loccum, near Lake Steinhude, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Wettingen-Mehrerau Abbey is a Cistercian territorial abbey and cathedral located at Mehrerau on the outskirts of Bregenz in Vorarlberg, Austria. Wettingen-Mehrerau Abbey is directly subordinate to the Holy See and thus forms no part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg. The abbot of Wettingen-Mehrerau, however, is a member of the Austrian Bishops' Conference. The official name of the abbey is Beatae Mariae Virginis de Maris Stella et de Augia Majore.
John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti was a Swiss prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He first served as the first bishop of the new Diocese of Saint Cloud in Minnesota in the United States from 1889 to 1894. Zardetti then served as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bucharest in what is today Romania from 1894 to 1895. After resigning as archbishop, Zardetti briefly, but influentially served in the Roman Curia with the title of titular archbishop of Mocissus.
Joseph John Gerry, O.S.B., was an American Benedictine monk and prelate of the Catholic Church.
The Austrian Bishops' Conference is the official assembly of the Roman Catholic bishops of Austria. It is the supreme authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria, established as a formal body under public law in 1849. Its members include the archbishops of Vienna and Salzburg, all diocesan and auxiliary bishops, as well as the abbot of immediate Wettingen-Mehrerau Abbey.
Pankraz Vorster was a Swiss abbot. He served as the last abbot of the Abbey of Saint Gall, from 1796 to 1805.
The Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, founded in 1928, was an American monastery of monks of the Cistercian Order of the Ancient, or Common, Observance in Wisconsin. These form a separate branch of the Order from the Cistercian monks of the Strict Observance, most commonly known as Trappists. This abbey was the first monastery of the Order to be established in the United States. The community was closed in 2011.
Hans-Peter Bischof is an Austrian medical doctor and former politician in the federal state of Vorarlberg for the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). From 1997 to 1999, and from 2004 to 2006, he was the governor of Vorarlberg Federal State Department.
Cassian Haid, born Josef, was the 75th General Abbot of the Common observance between 1920–1927.
Marienstatt Abbey is a Cistercian monastery and a pilgrimage site in Streithausen, Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, in the Nister valley near Hachenburg.
Erik Varden is a Norwegian Catholic prelate, spiritual writer, and Trappist monk. He has served as Bishop of Trondheim since 2020.
Kilian Germann was prince abbot of the Abbey of Saint Gall from 1529 to 1530.
Kassian (Otto) Lauterer was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest.