FORT LAUDERDALE � Charbel Hayek and his family now have a Maronite rite church within easy driving distance of their home in Plantation.

�Now, I can drive east on Sunrise Boulevard about seven miles to attend Mass in my native rite,� said Hayek, a Lebanese-American who occasionally drove to Our Lady of Lebanon on Coral Way in Miami for Mass. Most of the time, he and his family went to the Roman Catholic Mass at St. Gregory Church in Plantation.

Hayek and other Maronite Catholics attended a Mass Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany, to mark the opening of Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, Maronite Rite, in Fort Lauderdale�s Victoria Park area. Until now, Our Lady of Lebanon and Mary, Mother of Light Church in the Palm Beach diocese were the only Maronite rite churches in South Florida. 

Maronite Bishop Gregory Mansour had been thinking for a long time about starting a parish in Broward to fill the void.

�There was a vacuum in this area that needed to be filled,� said Chorbishop Michael Thomas, pastor of the new church. Chorbishop is a rank just below bishop in the Maronite rite.

Six months ago, the eparchy bought an old Unity church just south of the Galleria Mall. The Unity congregation stopped using the parish hall in June and the Maronites have been remodeling the offices since then. However, they have not had much time to remodel the church, which was vacated Dec. 29.

While serving as pastor, Chorbishop Thomas will continue to serve as vicar general of the Eparchy or Diocese of St. Maron of Brooklyn. The diocese covers 16 states from Maine to Florida. In order to do both jobs, Chorbishop Thomas will spend one week a month in Brooklyn. The rest of the time he will do everything by e-mail from Fort Lauderdale. He will be aided by Deacon John Jarvis.

�I know a lot of people in the South Florida area,� said Chorbishop Thomas, who was pastor of Our Lady of Lebanon from 1996 to 2004. �I�m very happy to be doing pastoral work. I want people to know that I�m available to them. I plan to start religious classes for pre-school through eighth grade.�

Chorbishop Thomas sprinkled holy water in the church as part of an informal dedication during the Mass.
�We will have a solemn consecration in the future when my congregation is more established,� he said.

In a display of unity, members of Our Lady of Lebanon Church joined in the celebration at Heart of Jesus Church. Among them was Thomas Abraham, son of longtime Miami philanthropists Anthony and Genevieve Abraham. The Anthony R. Abraham Foundation has supported the Catholic Church with generous donations and has pledged $1 million to the new Fort Lauderdale church.

�I�m here to give my friend and chorbishop a big hug on the opening of his new church,� said Abraham, whose father died in October at age 100. �I want him to know the Abraham family will continue to support him. My father helped open and supported Maronite churches throughout the country. This is one of the things we�re doing in my father�s honor. Our traditions are very important to us.�

Maronites make up the largest percentage of Christians in Lebanon and the fourth largest religious community in that country. They celebrate Mass in Arabic, English and Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.

�We use a distinct liturgy characterized by our own cultural and linguistic traditions,� said Chorbishop Thomas. �We have always been in complete unity with the pope of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church. We share the same dogmatic faith, the seven sacraments and moral teachings. We believe the same truths of the faith yet worship differently.�

The Maronite Church traces its origins to the time of the apostles and dates back to the early Christians of Antioch, where Jesus� followers were called Christians for the first time. The civil and religious persecutions of the seventh century caused Maronites to flee the plains of Syria and their churches and monasteries there and seek the natural protection of the mountains of Lebanon. Since then, Lebanon has served as the homeland of the Maronite Church.