16. The monastic community is so constituted and arranged that it resembles the Christian home over which the Abbot or Superior presides like the father of a family; and all should depend completely on his paternal authority. “We see that it is expedient” says St. Benedict, “for the preservation of peace and charity, that the entire government of the Monastery depend on the will of the Abbot”. Therefore each and everyone as a matter of duty should obey him most religiously and in him see God Himself and reverence His authority. As a duty committed to him, he undertakes to govern the souls of the monks and to lead them to evangelical perfection; and so let him most diligently weigh and ponder within himself that some day he must answer for them to the Supreme Judge, and let him so act in this grave matter that he may be justly rewarded when he renders his account before the “dreadful judgment of God”. Besides, whenever important matters are to be discussed in any monastery, let him call all the monks and listen carefully to their freely given counsels before he gives the decision that appears to him best.
Pope Pius XII
Fulgens Radiatur
Encyclical On St. Benedict
