Benno Gut

Benno Walter Gut, OSB (April 1, 1897&mdash;December 8, 1970) 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 January 6, 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 July 10, 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 April 15, 1947, he was elected Abbot of Einsiedeln, receiving the traditional episcopal benediction of new abbots from Archbishop Filippo Bernardini on the following May 5. Gut was elected as the fourth Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, and thus head of the Benedictine order, on September 24, 1959. From 1962 to 1965 he attended the Second Vatican Council.

On June 10, 1967, Gut was appointed Titular Archbishop of Thuccabora by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration eight days later, on June 18, 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 June 26 of that same year in advance of naming him Prefect of Congregation of Rites on the following June 29. 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 September 8, 1967. With the dissolution of the Congregation of Rites, the Cardinal became Prefect of the newly-established Congregation for Divine Worship on May 7, 1969.

Gut died in Rome, at age 73. He is buried in Einsiedeln Abbey.