History of Benedictines
Wimmer Priory
At the request of the Holy See in the person of Archbishop
Paul Yu Pin, exiled Archbishop of Nanking, China, Father Hugh Wilt, O.S.B., was
asked in 1960 to come to Taiwan to assist in reestablishing Fu Jen University.
A generation of monks has been formed at Saint Vincent since that time.
For Confluence’s mission issue, let this short paper be a review of the history
of Wimmer Priory for our new generation, as well as some projections for all of
us to consider.
After his arrival in Taiwan in 1960, Father Hugh was for
several years an active member of the board of trustees for reestablishing Fu
Jen University, the same Fu Jen that had been founded many years before by the
Benedictines in Peking, later administered by the Society of the Divine Word,
and presently
controlled by Red China. When the time came for the formal reopening of
the university, various religious groups and societies were invited to accept
the administration of particular colleges. Saint Vincent Archabbey did not
feel that it was in a position to make such a commitment at that time.
It was at this point in the history of our relationship with
the China mission that Father Hugh returned to the United States and reported to
the Saint Vincent community. His work in helping refound Fu Jen University
was completed. Now the question of a new priory and foundation in Taiwan
was submitted to the capitulars. The thinking regarding the new foundation
(as approved by the chapter), was that a small priory established near Fu Jen
University would hopefully draw native vocations, and that the monks of the
monastery could assist in teaching in the various colleges of the university.
Community approval of Wimmer Priory, then, established the following:
1. Saint Vincent Archabbey would continue its association with the
university it had originally helped found in Peking, China.
2. The Monks of Wimmer Priory would immediately have one apostolate,
teaching, without the responsibility of building, maintaining, and administering
a full college of Fu Jen. Needless to say, the above commitment likewise
contained the hope that the teaching apostolate would be a source of vocations.
Wimmer Priory was approved by the Saint Vincent community in
the fall of 1962. Father Hugh returned to Taiwan immediately and purchased
land for the priory near Fu Jen. Shortly after the arrival of Father
Claude Pollak in December, 1963, land was broken for the construction of the
building. Wimmer
Priory was blessed in June, 1964.
Father Hugh joined the Fu Jen faculty when the university
reopened in 1963; Father Claude began part-time teaching in the spring semester,
1966; Father John taught his first course in the fall semester, 1966; and Father
Prior, Paul Maher, has completed his first year of part-time teaching,
1967-1968. Brother Edwin, now Brother Nicholas, is still in the language school,
but he has taught English conversation on the weekends, both in the priory
neighborhood and to private groups at Fu Jen. This present summer, all of
the members of the community (except Father Claude, who has been to the language
school working on special history vocabulary for teaching in Chinese), have
taught in special English Institute given for the graduate students of Western
History in the Liberal Arts College of Fu Jen.
Obviously, and not without good reason, the teaching
apostolate has been and likely will continue to be one aspect of the work of
Wimmer Priory. I would say that presently our most significant role in
teaching is that which we have in the history department of the Liberal Arts
College, particularly in the graduate section of Western History. Fathers
Hugh, John and Claude teach in this section, and John and Claude are full-time
members of the history faculty. The object of the graduate department of
Western History is to train Chinese teachers of Western History. The
importance of this area of teaching is self-evident.
Concluding this section of background and present status of
the priory, I think we can make the following summary:
1. Wimmer Priory was founded with a rather firm commitment to assisting
with teaching at Fu Jen University.
2. The major external apostolate of the priory is presently the teaching
apostolate.
3. The make-up of the Wimmer Priory community at present makes the
teaching apostolate feasible and, we hope, effective in presenting our witness
in the area of higher education.
Manpower:
Each Benedictine foundation projects it thinking toward the
time when it will become self-sufficient, independent and effective as a
monastery in its society. We must facie realistically the possibilities of
an independent Wimmer Priory. Independence does require a native
community, and in our case, we project that this will probably be measured in
generations. This does not mean that we rule out the possibility of
vocations; rather, we feel that it will be a long time before a native community
can be formed. And we frankly have no vocations in sight at this time.
Is the time element a serious factor in the Taiwan mission?
It could happen in the normal growth of this society that we as a foreign
element could become increasingly unwelcome. Such an eventuality is not
apparent at this time, but it is a political possibility. Ideally, it
would be an advantage (not to say a miracle), if our present community would be
blessed with an abundance of vocations that could be formed into a community in
ten or fifteen years. This does not seem likely, nor can one plan on
time-limit formation based on
political speculation.
Perhaps more importantly, time is meaningful when we consider
the make-up of our present community. We are five members at this time;
our average is roughly forty years. Presently, Father Hugh, John and
Claude are what we might call “full-time missionaries.” Father Paul
continues to work on his Chinese while teaching a limited schedule of English
conversation. Edwin, now Nicholas, will wisely return to language school
for a third year, for this language proficiency will make him a more valuable
missionary. If Edwin, now
Nicholas, decides to enter the teaching apostolate, he will, after he completes
his theology, necessarily be required to spend some years of study in whatever
speciality he chooses. Claude suspended his doctoral studies when he came
to this mission. As we are presently involved in education, it is highly
desirable that he now completes his studies and acquires the PhD. Since he
is able to teach in Chinese, the PhD will literally double his value in this
society. His program of study will require two or three years away from
the mission. Mathematically, then, we can project that we will have no
more than three full-time missionaries in our active presence here for at least
the next five years. The point of this section is simply this: a
ten-man community (would you accept—eight-man?), is highly desirable as the
nucleus of Wimmer Priory. This number would give enough flexibility, both
to permit the men to pursue Chinese or other studies if they choose the teaching
apostolate, and to maintain at the priory a praying working community, one that
would provide a stable community life for the members and a liturgical witness
to those around us.
Prospects:
A recent survey of the Saint Vincent community has apparently
indicated that there a few volunteers for the foreign missions, perhaps none for
the Taiwan mission. I look upon this, not with surprise, because I was at
the abbey a year ago and found that we did not seem mission-oriented. I
do, however, look upon this lack of missionaries with a cautious sense of alarm
for the mission.
It might be well to add here that there was serious objection
to the foundation of Wimmer Priory in 1962, precisely on these grounds—lack of
sufficient manpower—to fulfill our many commitments. We realize at that
time as a community that the Taiwan mission did not have a plethora of
volunteers. I personally fought the argument of insufficient manpower and
asked that those of us who were inclined to this mission be permitted to pursue
it. I said at that time that if we failed, we would at least have made our
effort—Benedictine effort—to give something Christian to the largest nation the
world has ever known. If this mission were closed today, tomorrow or in
ten years, please God, Saint Vincent will have done that, will have given
something to China.
But I don’t think, of course, that the mission has failed,
nor need it fail in the future. Clearly, we dare not demand that our men
volunteer for the missions. That is simply a contradiction, impossibility.
Even those who say they will come to the mission if asked and needed (and I
count these men as brave hearts), should only be sent in special situations,
depending on the special man involved. One must really want to come and
to remain in the mission if he is to be effective. If we don’t have men
who want to come, of course we must wait until we do and go on as we can until
such time.
In our times, one might want to come to the missions, not
perhaps for a life-time, but rather for a certain term—five or ten years.
In other situations, particularly after we are better established and as the
university develops, we would be well advised to promote an occasional exchange
professor program such as we did with Father Armand Baldwin, who was quite
effective in teaching at Fu Jen, and who likewise added to the community life of
the priory. Missionaries for five or ten years and exchange professors
could add much to this young community, and it could serve as a stimulus to a
mission orientation in our formation programs at the abbey.
To conclude this section I would say that my sense of alarm
regarding manpower is based on our need for a stable nucleus of monks to
maintain a functioning community until vocations come. Our hope is that
through prayer and formation in the mother abbey we build for the future, and
that our present confreres come to know our missions and the place they may have
in the commitment.
Evaluation
My judgment of Wimmer Priory is that is has been a successful
foundation to date. We do have a presence in our neighborhood, and we are
hopefully having a good influence at the university, academic and Christian.
There are many other potential apostolates in this mission. Younger man
who might come could
find, I am sure, a mission that would allow them the freedom to pursue a variety
of necessary, thoughtful, Christian activities (social, educational, monastic),
as well as the opportunity to become part of a young and perhaps new kind of
community. While we are more closely involved in education at the present
time than with other activities, the thinking of the community as expressed by
our Prior, Paul Maher, is that the mind of the community in growth will
determine what this community should be doing. This doing could be a
variety of activities at a given time. My point is that our men at home
should not feel that there is no real place for them here if they are not
degreed men or inclined to the university-type apostolate. Non-clerical
and priesthood candidate monks would find equally useful places in this mission.
There is room here for those inclined to pursue the monastic life more closely
vis-à-vis the active life of teaching. A life of common prayer and
monastic
living is most important in a Benedictine mission. Nor have we really
begun to make serious studies in Eastern thought, the relationships between
Eastern and Western monasticism, and other important cultural areas. I
hold that it is neither correct nor fair for anyone to eliminate himself or
others from this mission on the grounds that he would not fit our pattern.
We do hope that this community remains alive and ready to adapt to the needs of
this
mission field.
We who are here are doing what we feel we can do best to
serve the mission of the Church and to advance this Benedictine foundation.
To be sure, we have had our disagreements as to where we should be here in
Taiwan, as well as to what we should and might be doing in our work. Yet
we are here and are giving
witness as best we can. We are the same human beings you all knew us to be
with our same human weaknesses that we bring to God’s work. But I believe
we are a community, a Benedictine community. This mission is evolving and
will continue to evolve to meet the changes in our small group and the changes
in the needs of the Church and society in Taiwan.
Finally, we are not in the “Bush” here in Taiwan; we are
close to a vibrant developing society. We are not starving or
underprivileged; rather, we have almost all of the conveniences you would have
at home. Our physical life could hardly be called a difficult one.
But this life requires sacrifice and effort. Of course the language
presents a problem, but it should not be blown out of proportion. It can
be learned (although frankly, Claude and Edwin, now Nicholas are better
witnesses to that than I). A small community naturally
has its own set of frictions, but one must face this reasonably and simply
maintain a sane balance. Cultural differences here are confusing at times,
and it does take time to learn—begin to learn this people and to love them.
Teaching here likewise requires a special kind of hide, in my opinion. We
are
in a developing country; we are western; and most of us try to teach in our own
language. At best this is a slow process, one that might not afford the
academic challenges we enjoy in teaching. This I find I must accept—or try
to accept—until I can force myself to gradually meet this people in their own
language as far as possible. There are sacrifices here, then, not the
least of which is being separated from our own large community at home.
But this is part of the life we accept when we accept the call to the missions.
Profile of a Missionary:
Let me conclude with a brief profile of a Benedictine
Missionary. Some of our young men might not really be acquainted with
Father Hugh Wilt (yes, it has been that long since he returned to China eight
years ago).
Father Hugh was ordained in Peking, China, on June 11, 1932.
He was one of the earliest members of our mission to China which established Fu
Jen University. The year following his ordination, when Fu Jen was in the
process of being given over to the Society of the Divine Word, Father Hugh
returned to the abbey. For the next twenty-six years he went about the
business of being a monk at Saint Vincent, getting his history degree at
Columbia University, teaching, sharing most of the administrative posts in the
college, directing
the minor seminary, directing the Ladies Auxiliary and much of the fund raising
of that organization, and finally, serving as prior from 1951-1960. In all those
years at Saint Vincent after his return from China, Father Hugh
never lost his zeal for the mission. At the request of Archbishop Paul Yu
Pin, the present Chancellor of Fu Jen University, Father Hugh was permitted to
return to china in 1960. He served on the board of directors of the new Fu
Jen and assisted with the planning and opening of the university in 1962.
It is only after being here in our small community for some
years that one realizes the sacrifices of Father Hugh in those early years here
without confreres, without authority to speak on behalf of Saint Vincent in the
university deliberations (since the abbey was not inclined to assume the
administration of a college), and without even a home of his own. None of
these sacrifices have ever been mentioned by Father Hugh himself, who, as we all
know, is one of the world’s most optimistic men. But sacrifice Father Hugh
did, and when in 1962 the Saint Vincent community decided to found Wimmer
Priory, it was he who returned to China, purchased the priory land, and
supervised the building, the funds for which he substantially raised himself.
At the same time, he taught a regular schedule at the university, served as
chaplain to the Benedictine nuns in Tam Shui, Taiwan, assisted in the
military parish in Taipei, and carried out his duties as Military Vicar of the
Military Ordinariate in this part of the world.
Most recently, Father Hugh conducted a successful fund
raising campaign in America for future use in the expansion of the priory
educational and monastic facilities. Upon his return from America early in
this year, he immediately took up again his many duties, which remain as they
were in his first years
here.
Father Hugh remains a most active missionary, and he
maintains his optimism about the missions in China and future of Wimmer Priory.
He is respected by the entire administration of Fu Jen University, by his
students, and by all the missionaries here, especially the old China hands.
More importantly, perhaps, Father has the respect of all of us, his confreres.
He may not approve of this public praise, but it is a small token compared to
his full life and his contributions to his abbey and to the China mission.
May we all
learn a little from this simple and inadequate profile of Father Hugh Wilt,
O.S.B., Founder and First Prior of Wimmer Priory—Benedictine Monastery.
We would all welcome your letters and inquiries into our life
here. We will also try to answer question regarding your own specific
interests in what we are or may be doing here. Meanwhile, keep the
missions in your prayers, your thinking and hour hopes. As a famous prior
of the great Saint Vincent
Archabbey (surnamed Kornides, I believe) once said during his tenure in the
South: “When you have the opportunity, y’all come here”