CARDINAL Hume gave the abbatial blessing to the new Abbot of Ampleforth, Dom Patrick Berry, in the Abbey Church of St Laurence the Martyr at Ampleforth College. Yorkshire, on Tuesday.
Among those attending were the Papal Pro-Nuncio, Archbishop Bruno Heim, Dom Victor Farwell of Worth Abbey, Abbot president of the English Benedictines, Bishop Gordon Wheeler of Leeds and Bishop Kevin O'Brien of Middlesborough.
Among the congregation were abbots, abbesses, monks and sisters representing more than 25 Benedictine congregations throughout Britain, as well as more than 100 monks of the Ampleforth Community. Also present for the concelebrated Mass were many prominent members of the hierarchy, and leading representatives of the Catholic laity including the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Gainsborough.