Abbot Timothy Wright presently teaches at Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois, and is the delegate of the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation for Monastic-Muslim Relations. He served as abbot of Ampleforth Abbey from 1997 to 2005,during which time he and Mohammad Ali Shomali organized a series of dialogues between Catholic monks and theologians and Shi’a Muslims from Iran.