An Abbatial Handoff: A Q&A with the incoming and outgoing abbots of Saint John’s Abbey

On Jan. 9, the monastic community of Saint John’s Abbey elected a new abbot. Benedictine Father Douglas Mullin now serves as the 11th abbot of Saint John’s Abbey, succeeding Benedictine Abbot John Klassen, who retired in accordance with church law after serving as abbot for 23 years.

Mullin, who was ordained in 2007, previously served as a chaplain at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center. He holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s degree in religious education and school administration, a master of divinity and a doctor of education in educational leadership.

He previously served as the Abbey’s subprior, vice president of student development at Saint John’s University, chair of the education department at SJU and the College of Saint Benedict and director of residency at Saint John’s Preparatory School.

Both former Abbot Klassen and new Abbot Mullin, took time to reflect upon this change.

OUTGOING ABBOT JOHN KLASSEN REFLECTS ON HIS TIME IN LEADERSHIP

Q. What has been the greatest blessing during your time as abbot?

Hands down — support. You can’t begin to hold a role like this without enormous support. Even through difficult, challenging times, the community here at Saint John’s has stayed with me. The sisters at Saint Benedict’s Monastery have been a source of prayer, support, goodwill and positive energy. We couldn’t have asked for better episcopal leaders than Bishops John Kinney, Donald Kettler and now Patrick Neary, in the sense that we are pulling the same direction with a relationship of respect and care. The clergy of the diocese, the deacons and their spouses and all the people of God in the places we’ve served, the Crosiers, Franciscan Sisters and the Poor Clares, as well as the staff here at Saint John’s and all of our alums have stood with us through some heavy duty storms and hard messaging in the media but also a harsh reality we had to recognize.

Q. What is one of the biggest challenges you faced?

For our community and for me as the spiritual leader, it was the sexual abuse crisis. In a crisis like that, there’s no silver bullet or magic way. Survivors come forward when they’re ready to come forward. It just tells you how incredibly painful it is for a survivor to go through this kind of trauma and what it takes for them to step forward and say, “This is not going to get better, I’ve got to deal with this.” When I speak about this, I don’t even want to say or suggest that somehow it’s done. I think that there are individuals who did not come forward. All we can do is have the apparatus and the compassion to respond to it as it is happening and have extraordinary measures of prevention.

Q. You have served as abbot for 23 years, what has changed most at Saint John’s Abbey? Our size. We are smaller. We are also older. What that has meant is we have really shifted our ability to staff and levels of staffing, in the Prep School, in parishes, in the Liturgical Press, in the university. We simply have fewer working-age confreres available both to staff but also to lead those positions.

Now we have lay leaders at the Liturgical Press, Prep School and for the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. We now send out 20 Benedictine volunteers every year. They are extending the mission of our monastery. It’s transformative.

Q. What are the next steps for you?

I realized that for myself and my own wellbeing, I needed to have a real steep learning event or task in front of me. I was a chemistry faculty member until 2000, and I am trained as a bioorganic chemist and I absolutely loved what I was doing in the classroom, but when you’re 75 and you’ve been out of the classroom for 25 years, that ship has sailed. So, I asked myself, what is the emerging need in Central Minnesota? It’s Latino ministry. I’m going work hard to become competent in Spanish at our daughter house in Mexico, Abadía del Tepeyac.

The second thing I want to do is write on the environment and fold in the work of Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si’.”

Q. What would you like to share with the Saint John’s community and those from the Diocese of St. Cloud?

One word — gratitude. I feel immense gratitude toward all the people of the diocese and the whole Saint John’s family for standing with me, for challenging me, and at the same time, having confidence in my leadership and the ability to put one foot in front of the other some days.

Of course, I’m grateful to my brothers. Nobody does this alone. I have had a lot of really good people who are picking up the slack and helping me think about things and make decisions. And when I mess up, they pull it back together. It means so much to recognize we all need each other.

NEW ABBOT DOUGLAS MULLIN LOOKS TO THE FUTURE

Q. What excites you most about serving as abbot of Saint John’s Abbey?

I am incredibly pleased by the strong sense of unity within the community. It’s a great thing, and I want to support that and contribute to that in any way that I can. Unity is so necessary to accomplish anything.

Q. Describe your leadership style in one word.

Collaborative. In my administration for the university and leadership at the Prep School and as a principal at Red Lake, it’s always been collaborative. I see myself as a team player, and building up a strong team is the most important thing to do.

Q. Keeping in mind the great Benedictine tradition “Ora et Labora” (worship and work), how do you prioritize prayer on the busiest days?

Sometimes people say, “How do you find the time to do all that?” and I say, well actually, it’s quite the opposite. If I don’t have time for prayer, my life is going to be pretty messed up. Fortunately, it’s built right into the monastic terrarium.

The Liturgy of the Hours and the Eucharist have been very important to me all these years, but in addition to that is personal prayer. My personal prayer includes lectio divina, spending time with the Scriptures and praying through the Scriptures. Then throughout the day, as I’m encountering different situations I turn to God with the questions, the joys, the sorrows — whatever is coming up. Being aware of my emotions and bringing them to God is a big part of my daily prayer.

Q. What is your greatest hope for the Church?

I hope we’re becoming a more open, inclusive Church. I hope we’re becoming more respectful of differences and really claim the Church as the big tent that has room for a lot of people. We don’t have to say one way is the only right way. I think that’s key. Certainly, our nation, and even our churches in many ways, is divided, and people look with suspicion upon others. We have a role to play as Benedictines, with our charisma of hospitality, to welcome all as Christ. Our challenge is to find Christ in all people, particularly those that we don’t understand, or we disagree with, and welcome them and find what we have in common.

COMPILED BY AMBER WALLING | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIANNE TOWALSKI

Author: The Central Minnesota Catholic

The Central Minnesota Catholic is the magazine for the Diocese of St. Cloud.

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