Abbot Marcel Rooney, O.S.B.
Spiritual Advisor Emeritus

"Teach people to pray, to get close to God."
 

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, a world-renowned liturgical scholar and former Benedictine liaison to the pope, continues to serve the Labouré Society through his prayers.

The 70-year-old former abbot of Conception Abbey in Missouri, who holds a doctorate in sacred theology, has been a college professor and chancellor in Rome, as well as lecturer, composer, chaplain and advisor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy. From 1996-2000 he served as abbot primate (head) of the worldwide Benedictine Confederation, making him his religious order's liaison to Pope John Paul II.

Because of heart problems, he resigned as primate and returned to his home at Conception Abbey in 2000, where he made his monastic profession in 1958 and was ordained a priest in 1963.

With regret, he tendered his resignation as Spiritual Advisor of the Labouré Society in July 2009. Abbot Rooney sited his health and the work he is doing in Tulsa, to develop a Theological Institute.

Abbot Rooney said the institute, primarily, would assist Tulsa's chief liturgist, Bishop Edward J. Slattery, as well as the priests, deacons and laity who plan and develop parish liturgy in the Tulsa diocese.

Though the institute is still in its early development stages, Abbot Rooney said it will focus on two main components: formation and education

The formation would include workshops for lectors, eucharistic ministers, cantors and altar servers as well as weekend retreats and parish missions.

The education would include courses in liturgy, history of the Mass and theology of the sacraments, he said. The institute would probably affiliate with a Catholic university to offer degreed programs up to the master's level eventually, he said.

The institute was founded to "teach people to pray. That's what liturgy is really about, to get close to God," he said.

Having public speaking skills are important for a lector, but he said, what really matters is that the lector loves and understands the Word of God.

Taking a Mass history course where the origins and meaning of the prayers are explained, he said, "would help people get past the externals of the Mass, to get to the inner grace which is Jesus in his paschal mystery."

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