New Abbot of Ampleforth

Dom Cuthbert Madden has been elected eighth Abbot of Ampleforth, the largest Benedictine community in Europe. The election took place at Ampleforth today, in the presence of the President of the English Benedictine Congregation, the Right Rev Dom Richard Yeo. Dom Cuthbert takes on the role of Abbot with immediate effect and replaces Abbot Timothy Wright, whose eight-year term of office had come to an end. The new Abbot will now hold overall responsibility for the 90-strong monastic community and its many works, including Ampleforth College, 17 parishes throughout North Yorkshire and the north-west of England, St Benet's Hall in Oxford, and the Monastery of Christ the Word in Zimbabwe, where five Ampleforth monks are engaged in pastoral work. The blessing of the new Abbot will take place at a special ceremony presided over by Bishop John Crowley of Middlesbrough, on a date to be arranged. Fr Cuthbert Madden, 50, was a medical doctor and surgeon before he joined the Benedictines. A native of Harpenden in Hertfordshire, he was educated in Hitchin and West Kirby. He studied at Middlesex Hospital Medical School before becoming a House Surgeon at West Norwich Hospital in 1978. Further medical posts followed in Middlesex Hospital, Bath United Hospitals and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. In September 1984 he became a novice at Ampleforth Abbey, taking the name Cuthbert. He studied theology at St Benet's Hall, Oxford, and was Solemnly Professed as a monk on 10 September 1988. He was ordained deacon the following year and ordained priest at Ampleforth Abbey by Bishop Augustine Harris on 24 June 1990. Fr Cuthbert has had a number of roles in the monastery and school and in 1997 was appointed Housemaster of St John's. Source: Ampleforth