New Abbot at Douai

Douai Abbey, Berkshire

The monks of Douai Abbey in Berkshire have celebrated the blessing of Father Paul Gunter OSB as their new abbot.

@douaiabbey

Abbot Paul received the abbatial blessing from Bishop Egan of Portsmouth, accompanied by 12 bishops and archbishops, together with the Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation and 13 abbots, on Thursday September 8. The Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire attended and ecumenical guests included the Anglican Bishop of Reading.

In his homily, Bishop Marcus Stock of Leeds highlighted the Rule of Saint Benedict as the immediate "spiritual foundation" for guiding the brethren; the ring as a sign of constancy in loving kindness; and the pastoral staff for the sacrificial love required of any shepherd of a Christian flock. In a similar vein, the new abbot has taken as his motto convertat ut benignitas, 'may he convert by kindness'.

In his words at the end of Mass, Abbot Paul spoke of the rich array of saints named in the Litany sung before the blessing. They were, he said "outward-facing ministers of the Gospel, of every time and state of life." Included in the Litany were the martyrs of China and Ukraine. They give us courage "to be missionary; that is, effective witnesses in our time to the person and saving work of Jesus Christ."

Abbot Paul Gunter, 56, is a native of Wolverhampton and entered Douai Abbey in 1985. After serving for some years on some of the monastery's parishes he was sent to Rome in 2002 for higher studies in liturgy at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute (PIL), where he was awarded a doctorate in 2006. He served ten years on the faculty of the PIL before returning to become parish priest of Alcester in Warwickshire.

In 2012 he was appointed Secretary to the Department of Christian Life and Worship of the English and Welsh bishops' conference, in which role he continues to serve. He was elected the eleventh abbot of Douai on 11 May 2022, succeeding Abbot Geoffrey Scott who retired after 24 years as abbot.

Douai Abbey, whose patron is Saint Edmund, King and Martyr, was founded in Paris in 1615. Dispersed by the French Revolution the community of English Benedictines was re-housed in Douai, northern France in 1818 before returning to England in 1903, settling at Woolhampton in Berkshire. Douai School, which also moved from Douai to Woolhampton, closed in 1999. The constant work of the monks of the community has been service on the mission in England and Wales, though its monks have served as far afield as Mauritius and Australia. Today the community has 21 monks, some of whom serve in parishes in the dioceses of Portsmouth, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Menevia.