Religious Academy Has ‘Great Reputation’
Tucked away among stately homes and horse farms, Holy Cross Academy, founded in 1985, prides itself on high academic and moral standards. Every day, nearly 500 students clad in crisp uniforms pause for prayer, meditation and daily Scripture readings.
The academy, a yellow, two-story Gothic-style building that resembles a castle, is under the jurisdiction of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, in West Paterson, N.J., a branch of the Eastern Catholic Church, which has some liturgical differences from its Roman Catholic cousins.
Students from kindergarten through 12th grade study Greek and Latin as well as modern foreign languages, theology, the humanities and the sciences.
”It’s a fine school,” said the Rev. Peter Lickman, pastor at St. Basil the Great, an Eastern Catholic Church in North Miami Beach. ”It has developed rather well and has a great reputation in Miami.”
The school, which charges $4,900 to $5,725 for tuition, is run by the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross, also affiliated with the Eastern Catholic Church.
The children learn the Roman Catholic liturgy. But the monks and nuns who live there in separate quarters are of the Byzantine rite.
Monks on the campus chant prayers, meditate and teach at the school. Joining the monastery is a process that takes many years and includes a screening process for psychological disorders. Those interested in the monastery must live among monks for weeks or months to get a taste of the life before they are accepted as candidates.
The Basilian Fathers of Mariapoch in Matawan, N.J., which is affiliated with the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, vigorously investigates aspiring monks, especially scrutinizing those who look to join the monastery in their teens, said Joseph Erdei, a monk with the order of St. Basil the Great.
”You have to know what kind of person he is and watch how he is acting,” Erdei said. ”You don’t admit just anybody into your family, even for a short time. He could be a gangster or a sick person who can kill you. Who knows?”
Eastern Catholic churches are not under the jurisdiction of Roman Catholic dioceses. Those in Miami fall under the jurisdiction of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, in West Paterson. But Byzantine Catholics embrace full communion with the Church of Rome and its primate, Pope John Paul II.
They share the same faith and have the same seven sacraments, but the Mass is celebrated in ancient languages such as Greek or Arabic. Most Roman Catholic Masses are celebrated in modern languages. Another difference is that traditional Byzantine churches are built in the shape of a cross and are decorated with art that reflects the Byzantine culture.
The Byzantine rite originated in the Greek city of Antioch (in modern southern Turkey), one of the earliest and most celebrated centers of Christianity, but it was further developed in Byzantium, or Constantinople (Istanbul). The rite was associated primarily with the Great Church of Constantinople and used the Greek language. As Constantinople extended its influence, however, the rite lost its exclusive Greek character and became Byzantine as it was translated into the dialects of the diverse peoples who adopted it.
Once part of the Eastern Orthodox umbrella, which split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th Century, the Byzantine Catholic Church eventually returned to the papal fold in a move toward church unity.
Mykhaylo Kofel, 18, a student monk who was arrested in connection with the death of Sister Michelle Lewis, was studying to join the Byzantine order the Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross.