The Benedictine Donato Ogliari, abbot of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, and former ordinary abbot of Montecassino, has been elected president of the Italian Conference of Major Superiors (CISM). The vote took place in Assisi during the 66th national assembly of this organization, which began on Tuesday and concludes on Saturday under the motto “the religious of the future Church.” Ogliari, 69, succeeds the Discalced Carmelite Luigi Gaetani, who had presided over the conference since 2012.
CISM is a pontifical-right organization founded in 1960 that brings together the major superiors of male religious institutes and societies of apostolic life present in Italy. Its female counterpart is USMI, the union of major superiors.
A Benedictine with a long career in the Curia
Born in Erba (Como) in 1956, Ogliari was ordained a priest in 1982 as a missionary of the Consolata and in 1987 entered the Benedictine family. He was abbot of Madonna della Scala in Noci from 2006, and in 2014 Francis appointed him abbot of Montecassino, a position he held until 2023 when he was succeeded by Antonio Luca Fallica, as reported by InfoVaticana.
Since 2022 he has led Saint Paul Outside the Walls, and that same year he was appointed a member of the Dicastery for Bishops; he also serves on the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. In April 2025, before the conclave that elected Leo XIV, he delivered one of the meditations addressed to the cardinals in the General Congregation, alongside the Capuchin Raniero Cantalamessa.
Gaetani’s succession, with an ongoing canonical procedure
Gaetani, born in Gallipoli in 1959, was elected president of CISM in 2012 and re-elected in 2016 and 2022. According to Silere non possum, which had already reported on the matter in February 2025, several confreres and former collaborators accuse him of abuses of authority and conscience.
The same outlet maintains that the complaints reached the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, which opened a canonical procedure that is still ongoing. Its origin lies in the 2023 chapter of the Naples province of the Discalced Carmelites, in which Gaetani was re-elected provincial on the fourth ballot; the superior general later annulled the election due to an irregularity and appointed Arockia Amaladass in his place. Gaetani has not been convicted and the accusations remain pending resolution.
Ogliari had been part of the CISM presidency council since January 2023. In April 2025 he had also been elected president of the Italian Monastic Conference.