Communiqué of the prior, Luciano Manicardi

Enzo Bianchi and Luciano Manicardi
Enzo Bianchi and Luciano Manicardi

Dear friends and guests,
As you already know, on 26 January the brothers and sisters of Bose, after having received the resignation of the prior and founder of our community, br Enzo Bianchi, who for a long time has been preparing us for this moment, assembled for the annual general council to proceed to elect a new prior. Their choice fell on me, and I freely, but with great fear and trembling, accepted the charge.

I am aware that a person like br Enzo Bianchi does not have a successor, I am aware of the meaning that our community represents for many believers for their journey of faith, I am aware of the service to various Christian Churches that our community has been carrying out for many years as a means of seeking the unity willed by the Lord, I am aware of the debt we have to the monastic tradition and to numerous monasteries that Enzo, but also the brothers and sisters of our community have known, I am aware of the rapport and sympathy created with many non-believers in view of a common search for an ever more human way of inhabiting the world that our understanding of the Gospel has suggested to us.

I am aware of the responsibility that all this entails and especially I am aware of my limits, but he who presides a community does it together with his brothers and sisters and also with the support and prayer of those who are close to them. For this reason I ask of you, friends and guests, to call upon the Spirit and to pray for our community, for him who founded and presided over it until now, and for me and the service that I now embark upon.

Trusting in the Lord, compassionate and merciful,
br Luciano Manicardi