By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

FORT LAUDERDALE | Two years after opening their doors on a waterfront site in the Victoria Park neighborhood, the community at Heart of Jesus Maronite Catholic Church has taken root and built relationships across the region.

�It�s an amazing community partly because it�s small but also because our pastor, Msgr. Michael (Thomas), takes a personal interest in everyone � if someone isn�t around for a couple of days he finds out why; when my mom was sick he came to visit her,� said Jo L�Abbate, a choir member and parish religious educator who born in Miami and studied Arabic and religious studies in the Middle East.

�It truly is a Christian community,� she said.

The Maronite Church traces its origins to the time of the apostles, back to 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, 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.

Maronites are one of nearly two dozen Catholic rites worldwide, of which the Roman Catholic (Latin rite) is only one.

�There are 22 different ways to be Catholic and the Latin rite outnumbers us, both in the United States and around the rest of the world, so that the other 21 ways of being Catholic are not well known,� L�Abbate said.

On March 2, Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated a Mass at Heart of Jesus Church according to the Maronite rite. He was joined by Chorbishop Michael Thomas, the community�s pastor and chancellor of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, which extends from New England to Florida along the East Coast.

Over the years, Miami�s archbishops have fostered a relationship with the Maronite churches here, since their Maronite bishop is located far away in the Northeast.

�We opened this parish two years ago and we are so glad Archbishop Wenski is keeping that connection,� Chorbishop Thomas said. �We are all Catholic under the Holy Father. It�s a spiritual connection.�

In the two years since it opened, Heart of Jesus Church has caught on and grown as a family, he added, pointing to the parish festival and Lebanese-style meal that followed the March 2 Mass.

�We started from scratch and took a leap of faith and it worked,� Chorbishop Thomas said of the new church. �We serve the Maronites of Broward County who were previously going down to Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Miami on occasions, or the Latin rite churches. And now at least they have a place and we have a good crowd every Sunday.�

Archbishop Wenski told the congregation that the Maronite Church in their homelands survived despite being surrounded by Islam: �Your ancestors kept the faith and were not absorbed by the surrounding culture.�

�Today, in the West, we are subjected to the seemingly irresistible currents of a radical secularism that, by exiling God from human consciousness, is changing the way we see reality and how we understand ourselves as human beings,� the archbishop said.

Longtime Maronite community leader John Sassine noted that many of the South Florida Maronites were born in the Caribbean and Latin America, including places like Cuba and Jamaica. Heart of Jesus Church gives those immigrants a place to rediscover their authentic Maronite traditions and worship style, in some cases for the first time in their lives.

�It is a very family-oriented parish � everybody knows everybody even though we are from different parts of the world and different parts of Lebanon but we live the old traditional Lebanese way: as one family,� said Sassine, who is a member of the choir.

�People here have rediscovered their roots by interacting with the Maronite Church because they didn�t get that chance to do so before in Latin America and Caribbean and to hear the Mass in Aramaic,� he added. �Some of the songs you heard today are 1,000 years old.�

Parishioner Theresa Deeb, who before Mass was busy setting up for the luncheon while her husband was manning the barbecued chicken, explained that she was born in Lebanon but raised in Australia, and has been helping to get the new church established. She serves as a lay board member at Heart of Jesus.

�We used to drive to the Maronite church in Miami or Latin rite churches in Hollywood but now all our time is spent here at Heart of Jesus,� Deeb said. �It is a very homey and inviting church and everyone I speak to who comes here feels very welcomed. Msgr. Thomas does give a good homily and gets the message right across to the people.�

Miami businessman Thomas Abraham, whose father was deeply involved in Maronite causes in the United States, said it was important to have Archbishop Wenski visit.

�This is a place to protect our culture, to enhance and promote it and to bring families together to share each other�s knowledge of their history,� said Abraham, who noted that he and his siblings were adopted from an orphanage in Beirut.

Abraham and others in the parish added that they are excited to hear that Pope Francis is planning to visit the Holy Land in May, where he will encounter some of the other Middle East Catholic communities. Some even wondered if he would add Lebanon to his itinerary.

�I had the blessing of living in Damascus, Syria, in 2005 in the ancient Christian quarter of that city, and while I was there I visited eight different Catholic rites all within walking distance of my apartment,� said choir member L�Abbate. �Those different rites evolved in the Middle East because of the different languages and peoples.�

Shawn McKamey, a member of nearby St. Anthony Parish in Fort Lauderdale, said that he is now part of a shared Knights of Columbus council between the two churches, which have fostered a brotherly relationship over the last two years.

�The Knights of Columbus have been helping to introduce some of our students and others at St. Anthony Parish about the richness and the beauty of the Maronite rite, and it has been very fruitful as we have all gotten to know each other,� McKamey said. �The blending of the Eastern and Western traditions is a beautiful thing and enriches both the folks at St. Anthony and those here.�