Catholic World News
March 27 2004

Trappist monk chosen for Good Friday meditations

Vatican, Mar. 26 (CWNews.com) – A Belgian Trappist monk, Father Andre
Louf, has been chosen by Pope John Paul II to write the meditations
for the Stations of the Cross this year.

Each year the Pope presides at the Stations of the Cross on Good
Friday in the Roman Coliseum. Pope John Paul II has made it his
practice to ask a different writer to compose meditations for that
event. In 1986 the Pope called on the French writer Andre Frossard to
provide the text; in 1994 it was the Orthodox Patriarch of
Constantinople, Bartholomew I; in 1997, the Armenian Apostolic
leader, Karekin I; in 2002 the Pope took another unusual step by
asking journalists who cover the Vatican to offer their meditations.

Andre Louf is a major figure in the post-conciliar renewal of the
Trappist order. Born in 1929, he entered the Cistercian monastery in
1949, taking the name of Andre (he was baptized as Jacque). He is the
author of many works on theology and prayer.