One of the largest Norbertine communities in the world, St. Michaelʼs Abbey in Orange County, California, has elected Father John Caronan as its third abbot since its founding in 1961, succeeding Abbot Eugene Hayes, who led the community for 31 years.
Caronan will serve for a 12-year term, overseeing both the pastoral care and the governance of the community….
Born Edgar Caronan in Manila, Philippines, in 1964, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1975 and arrived at St. Michael’s Abbey a decade later, making his solemn profession in 1992. He was ordained a priest in 1994.
Caronan is a canon lawyer and spent much of his career working in the marriage tribunals of the Diocese of Orange, in which the abbey is located, and the neighboring Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He has served as the judicial vicar of both the Diocese of Orange and the Maronite Tribunal of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon. He has also been the regular celebrant of the Tridentine Mass at St. John the Baptist Parish in Costa Mesa, which is staffed by the Norbertine Fathers.
The original members of the community were seven Norbertine priests who fled an oppressive communist government in Hungary in 1950. They made their way to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1957 (the Diocese of Orange would be established in 1976), when Cardinal James McIntyre invited them to teach at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
By 1960, Parker and his fellow Norbertines had collectively earned $46,000 and purchased a remote strip of cattle-grazing land at the base of the Saddleback Mountains. They established St. Michael’s Priory, named for the abbey in Csorna, Hungary, and in 1984, Pope John Paul II approved the conferral of abbey status on St. Michael’s.
In contrast to many religious communities, St. Michael’s Abbey has enjoyed an abundance of vocations, with 68 priests and 32 men currently in formation. The growth necessitated the moving of the community from the former cow pasture to a 320-acre site nine miles away in 2021 with ample space for the community, its apostolates, and future growth.
Today, the community staffs two parishes, St. John’s and Sts. Peter and Paul in Wilmington, California; administers a high school in San Pedro, California; operates a local summer camp; staffs the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin; and staffs Corpus Christi Priory in Springfield, Illinois. Additionally, each Sunday, individual Norbertines assist at more than 30 parishes throughout Southern California.
The election for the new abbot began with a vote on the length of term the abbot would serve; Hayes was elected for life with a mandatory retirement age of 75. This time, the community opted for a 12-year term. Caronan’s election followed via secret ballot; he is the first Filipino-born abbot in the history of the community.
From Angelus News
I am a newcomer to this site recommended by Dan Gallup. I am responding to the article about women’s roles in the Church. As a retired jphilosophy prof., here is my sound-byte about women priests.
Suppose you were the director of a nativity play in your parish. Clark Gable haooebed ti be in your parish. Would you choose him for the part of Mary?
Dr. Ronda Chervin
Welcome, and say Hello to Daniel!
God made Man and Woman– each a wonderful and unique, Divine creation. Their True Love is a beautiful, great, Divinely-ordained Mystery, a sudden flight to the heavenly realms. I recall the day my dad came home in Nov. 1960, and announced that Clark Gable had just died of a heart attack. Wow, what a movie idol! I think I saw “Gone With the Wind” three times. My dad’s father looked like Clark Gable, when young, and his mother said she nearly died and went to Heaven, the day she first met him! A never-ending romance was sparked! But my grandfather was a quiet, humble, and very caring man for others– not a “movie star” type– and everyone loved him. My dad never got over his beloved father’s death from cancer, in 1956. My mom helped with his nursing care, in his final days, and I always went with her. She adored him.
Both of my grandfathers were born in the 1890s. Clark Gable was born in 1901. In our normal American culture before the radical 1960s era, men and women were normal. A boy was proud to grow up naturally into full manhood, and a girl was proud to grow up naturally, into full womanhood. God created man and woman to grow up to their full potentials– that is all a part of God’s divine plan. God created man and woman to have complementary roles– each one is unique and equal in God’s Kingdom. In our Church’s holy tradition, Christ is the model for manhood, and the Blessed Virgin Mary is our model for womanhood. The eternal love of man and woman as bride and groom in the holy sacrament of Matrimony is divinely ordained– and is a glorious Mystery. Same-sex attraction is a disordered anomaly of nature– a disability. There is no such thing as gay marriage.
You should not let your electronic device choose your words for you.