Denver Newsroom, Mar 9, 2022 / 10:35 am
The Norbertines’ St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California, has seen major growth in recent years, and that growth will continue in Illinois. Plans are underway to establish a new community in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois that will include a new center for Catholic spirituality and the formation of teachers of Catholic religion.
“We have developed a strong relationship with the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael’s Abbey over the past several years, and we are thrilled to welcome them to our diocese,” Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois said in a March 3 statement. “The Norbertines are a vibrant and growing community of holy men, and their presence and apostolic work will be a great blessing to the people of our diocese and to this region”
Abbot Eugene Hayes, O. Praem., who heads St. Michael’s Abbey, told CNA March 4 that he looked forward to working closely with the bishop and supporting “his bold plans of evangelization in and around his diocese.” For the Norbertines, he said, a new community in Illinois will mean “sharing with the faithful in the Diocese of Springfield the intellectual and spiritual gifts with which God has bestowed on the Norbertines of St. Michael’s Abbey through its many vocations to the religious life and priesthood.”
The Norbertine, or Premonstratensian, Fathers of St. Michael’s Abbey recently finished construction on a new abbey in eastern Orange County, after a $120 million fundraising campaign. However, the abbey is at full capacity, with almost 50 priests and 40 seminarians.