Benno Gut
Benno Walter Gut, O.S.B. was a Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship in the Roman Curia from 1969 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967.Biography
Born in Reiden, Walter Gut entered the Order of Saint Benedict at Einsiedeln Abbey, taking the name of Benno, which was the name of the abbey's rector, upon his profession on 6 January 1918. He studied at the Einsiedeln Abbey College, Musical Conservatory of Basel, University of Basel, and International College of Saint Anselm and Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Ordained to the priesthood on 10 July 1921, Gut finished his studies in 1923 and then did pastoral work at Einsiedeln Abbey until 1930.
Gut taught at his alma mater of the International College of Saint Anselm in Rome from 1930 to 1939, at which time he became a professor at the Einsiedeln Abbey College. On 15 April 1947 he was elected Abbot of Einsiedeln, receiving the traditional episcopal benediction of new abbots from Archbishop Filippo Bernardini on the following 5 May. Gut was elected as the fourth Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, and thus head of the Benedictine order, on 24 September 1959. From 1962 to 1965 he attended the Second Vatican Council.
On 10 June 1967 Gut was appointed Titular Archbishop of Thuccabora by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration eight days later, on 18 June, from Cardinal Eugène Cardinal Tisserant, with Bishops Joseph Hasler and Johannes Vonderach serving as co-consecrators, at Einsiedeln Abbey.
Pope Paul VI created him Cardinal Deacon of S. Giorgio in Velabro in the consistory of 26 June the same year in advance of naming him Prefect of Congregation of Rites on the following 29 June. Along with Prefect of Rites, Gut also assumed in 1968 the position of president of the consilium for liturgical reform, of which the Benedictine abbot was an advocate. He later resigned as Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation on 8 September 1967. With the dissolution of the Congregation of Rites, the Cardinal became Prefect of the newly established Congregation for Divine Worship on 7 May 1969.
Gut died in Rome, at age 73. He is buried in Einsiedeln Abbey.
