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At last, a new abbot for Saint Leo

The youngest among them, a 43-year-old priest is their leader.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published November 15, 2007

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ST. LEO - For 11 years, the monks in Saint Leo Abbey lived and worked and prayed without the guidance of an abbot, the spiritual leader of the community.

During that time, they had three administrators who oversaw operation of the abbey, but no one felt ready to assume the supreme role of abbot.

There was a void.

But this year, things began to stir.

Individually and alone, the abbey's 24 monks and priests decided they were ready to choose someone. They made nominations from among their ranks and whittled the potential choices down to one candidate. Then they held a closed meeting, known as a scrutinium, to talk about the choice.

On a recent Saturday morning, they came together to celebrate Mass and pray for guidance. Then they held an election.

Their choice was the Rev. Isaac Camacho, a priest who joined the abbey in 1992.

A cross was hung around his neck, and it was done.

At 43, he is the youngest of the monks, and now he's their spiritual father.

He is already a little daunted.

"How will I make them proud of who they are?" Camacho wonders. "To lift up their souls?

"I don't know how I'm going to do it, but that's my goal."

Camacho, a native of Mexico City, is warm and timid at the same time, with dark eyes and a kind smile. He has five sisters and two brothers, all of whom are married with children.

Camacho hadn't thought much about what to do with his life when a friend asked him to help him move into Tepeyac Abbey in Mexico. The friend left after a few months, but Camacho kept coming back. He officially joined the community at age 21.

Two books, he said, also drew him to the monastic life.

One was a Spanish story about a monk who is dying, and instead of being comforted by others, he is the source of comfort.

The other was Siddhartha, the Eastern saga of a man searching for enlightenment who ultimately finds it in nature.

"I thought, these two lives are the life of a monk," Camacho said. "I wanted to be like that."

When he came to Saint Leo, he had no intention of ever becoming a priest - distinguished from a monk because a priest performs the sacraments of the Catholic Church. But enough people, including some of his fellow monks, urged him to consider it. He took his vows in 2001.

Until now, he has been working at St. Mark the Evangelist in New Tampa, a thriving parish of 1,500 families. He drove every day from his home at the abbey and worked in an office and celebrated weekend Masses. He joined the five-times-daily prayers with his fellow monks from the solitude of his office at St. Mark.

But that's all ending.

"I'm going back to my monastic routine," he said. "I'm sure that it will be good for me to pray with the community all the time."

He is quickly making the transition into his new role. He has an office and a computer and a cocker spaniel named Baloo, which actually continues a tradition: All the previous abbots had a dog, he said.

But Camacho's primary preoccupation is his new responsibility of leadership.

"How can you become a father?" he wonders again. "For me, it's to learn how to talk to the monks, understand their spiritual needs."

The Rev. James Hoge came to Saint Leo in 1938 and is 90 now. He said the abbot - to whom the other monks take a vow of obedience - is normally one of the older members who has a natural authority.

But he's not worried about Camacho's youth.

"It's an unusual situation and it's something that we'll have to get used to, that's all," he said. "I can handle the obedience part."

He is glad the void is finally filled. "With an abbot we have a man who is in every sense a spiritual father," Hoge said.

"We depend on him for guidance."

Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 14, 2007, 20:44:04]

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