After Vatican's Visitation: Heiligenkreuz Abbot Resigns
The monastery still uses Latin and the Gregorian chant for its liturgies. It is strictly Novus Ordo with only few monks preferring the Roman rite. They had a difficult life under Abbot Heim.
Abbot Heim said the time had come to place the responsibility “in younger hands,” pointing to the heart problems he suffered last year.
Heim intends to return to pastoral ministry and theological work.
His resignation comes roughly a year before the scheduled end of his second term.
The monks are expected to elect new leadership in September.
In consultation with the Vatican, however, the community will initially elect an administrator for a three-year term rather than an abbot for the customary longer mandate.
The resignation comes only months after the conclusion of an Apostolic Visitation ordered by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The visitation, announced in June 2025, examined the abbey’s governance and Heim’s personal leadership, including the exercise of spiritual authority, internal communication, the handling of criticism and conflict, formation and the response to allegations of abuse or other serious misconduct.
The Vatican subsequently instructed Heiligenkreuz to review aspects of its theological and spiritual orientation.
Picture: Maximilian Heim, © RPP, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA, #newsWskblqfwrf