Curial spiritual exercises: Leo XIV chooses a monastic voice of communion

Vatican City - It will be Msgr. Erik Varden, O.C.S.O., bishop and Trappist monk, who will preach the Lenten Spiritual Exercises for Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia. The choice, made with a view to the annual appointment that ushers in the penitential season of Lent, brings alongside the Pope a voice recognised for theological rigour, spiritual depth, and a solid monastic rootedness. There is, however, a further element to bring into focus: Varden belongs to that profile of bishops who, in recent years, have stood out for balance and for a constant appeal to the value of tradition, without indulging either in identity-based hardening or in headlong flights forward. He is a shepherd who reasons in terms of integration and not opposition, and precisely for this reason he is a man of communion.
Only cardinals - including those not serving in the Curia - and the heads of dicasteries will be able to take part in the meditations.
Who is Erik Varden?
Erik Varden, already known …