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I heard today that a Byzantine Catholic monastery in Florida is being accepted into the OCA. Does anyone know anything about this?

Dave

I wasn't aware of such a thing in Florida. Where did you hear it and from whom? Written or hearsay?

Joe

This is the only Byzantine Religious Community in Florida to my knowledge:

Community of the Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross

Community and Academy

12425 Sunset Drive

Miami, FL

Phone: 305-598-0009

Best thing to do is call them on Monday and ask.

In Christ,
Rob

That's the one.

I heard it from a rather reputable source: Metropolitan Herman.

Dave

I would tend to believe His Beatitude!!!

Hmmm, my first post was removed. Suffice to say that if you do a news search in a Miami newspaper for "Holy Cross Monastery" you will get quite an eyeful. OCA beware!

Your post was removed because it mixed unsubstantiated gossip with factual occurrences. The monks (if this is indeed the monastery in question) should be allowed to work out their future without such gossip. Pray for them as they discern the Lord�s will.

Wow! There is ... err, was(?) a Byzantine Catholic monastery in Miami, Florida. How clueless of me!

Did it have any connections with the now defunct Byzantine Catholic monastery in Hollywood, Florida?

Wait a minute. I think this topic was discussed on these forums once before, no?

The address posted above is slightly different from the one in all those news articles two years ago, which was:

12425 SW 72nd Street
Kendall, Florida

Unless this was the address to Holy Cross Academy, which at one time accepted students from Uzhorod, Ukraine.

What happened to the Academy and the remaining nuns?

Joe

It was the destination of at least two (BC - Eparchy of Passaic) Southern States Deanery pilgrimages in my time in South Florida during the episcopacy of Bishop MICHAEL.

I was there for both of those events. It was a lovely community. I wish them well.

Dear friends:

This is hard to understand from me I tried to clarify it last time.

In my country, the temples belong to the State but they are given to religious communities for their use.

If a parish priest or monks decide to sever relationship with the Church they belong to, this Church has the right to ask the State to evict them from the temple and restore it to the Church.

From what I see, it's different in the USA.

I mean, isn't it unfair for you Byzantine Catholics? It's your temple, your monastery, belonging to your Church.

Do you agree with that?

I mean, as an Orthodox Christian I believe the monks' decission to cut communion with John Paul II and the local Bishop is quite understandable but is it ok to do so taking the monastery place with them?

Mexican,

Ownership of church properties is in the hands of the churches. There is a separation of Church and State in the U.S. (The State still taxes though)

Many of our church properties were originally in the hands of the parish trustees. That eventually changed when titles to properties were centralized in the hands of the bishops.

Monastic communities may be different in that their property title is in their hands.

Does this sound right, folks?

Yes Cantor Joe, that sounds right to me.

I am unable to comment directly on traditional Eastern Catholic and Orthodox monasteries because I understand that they would be directly dependant upon the local bishop (as opposed to a religious order). But I will assume that the monks or nuns own the property in common, as do the western type religious congregations.

Benedictine abbeys are totally independant of the local bishop, they own their own property and the bishops authority stops at the door.

Many religious organizations own schools or hospitals, it would be their privilege to sell these propereties should the need arise. Of course the parish schools are attached to the parish and that would belong to the bishop as Corporation Sole.

I was just told an interesting story about St John's Abbey in Minnesota, the abbey was erected before the diocese of Saint Cloud was created, and they had established several parishes in the area, it is part of their charism to evangelize. These parish properties therefore belonged to the abbey, and there was one particularly nice church in the city. When the diocese of Saint Cloud was erected the Bishop seized the parish and made it his cathedral! He may have taken all of them, I don't really know. This had parallels in the famous issues of church title we are familiar with here, the church property cannot be privately held or controlled by trustees, the title goes to the bishop.

However the other properties (colleges, hospitals, etc.) may be held by the society or brotherhood or what-have-you. We have the recent case of Marist College which I will quote here. The order that founded the school established an independant board of trustees that evolved over time into a non-Catholic focused board and just slipped away. This has happened to hospitals as well!

Theoretically then, any religious order could convert en masse and take their own property with them. But if there is a division within the congregation, I suppose it could get ugly.

Michael

(This info comes from another priest of the OCA. I have no first hand knowledge of this, but since the report is that His Beatitude spoke of it publicly, I post this information.)

"His Beatitude, Metropolitan HERMAN reported at the Diocesan Assembly of Philadelphia and Eastern PA, this past Saturday in Bethlehem, PA, that he will be journeying to Florida in the very near future (possibly in Novemnber) to receive the Monastery into the OCA."

Priest Thomas

I am completely ignorant of this issue. Can someone please explain the reason for the transfer, or direct me to a link that does so?

Thank you.

Marduk

That would probably best be answered by the monks themselves. I have just heard there are only two monks and three novices. There is no news source on the internet that I know of that is reporting this (would that make a "scoop" for ByzCath? ), but I do have this on good authority. Just recieved a phone call and was given permission to post this publicly.

Priest Thomas