Filipino Norbertine priest elected new abbot of St. Michael’s Abbey in California

LOS ANGELES — One of the largest Norbertine communities in the world, St. Michaelʼs Abbey in Orange County, California, has elected Father John Caronan as its third abbot since its founding in 1961, succeeding Abbot Eugene Hayes, who led the community for 31 years.

Caronan will serve for a 12-year term, overseeing both the pastoral care and the governance of the community.

“I was certainly surprised that my confreres chose me to fill this important fatherly role,” Caronan said. “I know that Godʼs grace will sustain me every step of the way, and I pray that he will help me to be the kind of father that our community desires me to be. Already in the first few weeks since my election, I can see just how much his grace is helping me to undertake this task.”

Born Edgar Caronan in Manila, Philippines, in 1964, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1975 and arrived at St. Michael’s Abbey a decade later, making his solemn profession in 1992. He was ordained a priest in 1994.

Caronan is a canon lawyer and spent much of his career working in the marriage tribunals of the Diocese of Orange, in which the abbey is located, and the neighboring Archdiocese of Los…