Hermit Monks, Monastery, Wyoming, Ground Zero Mosque....

Roman Catholic hermit monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel want to build a 144,000-square-foot French Gothic-style monastery featuring a church that seats 150, with one spire rising 150 feet, and coffee roasting barn near Meeteetse, Wyoming, a town with a population of about 350.  Some ranchers are objecting to the monastery.  Keep in mind these are hermit monks, they do not interact with the public.  

According to the AP report, Dave Grabbert, owner of the 2,500 acre ranch the monks want to build on, said  "What's puzzling to me is if people complain about these guys as neighbors, what kind of neighbors would they want."  Apparently it's not the fact that they are monks people are concerned about.  The article mentions traffic, wildlife, water — and questioning whether the massive stone structure fits with the rural landscape ... and the religious order wouldn't be paying property taxes.

I think this story is very interesting when compared with the situation in New York City and the Ground Zero mosque, don't you?  Is Barack Obama and all the other dhimmis standing up and saying the monks have the right to build their monastery on this site?  Where's the media, where's the demonstrators, where are the cries of racism at those who are against the monastery?  Why isn't New York City complaining that they will be deprived of taxes from the Cordoba House?  The questions could go on and on.

They belong to an order rooted in the 16th century that requires they sustain themselves through mostly manual labor. They dress in handmade full length robes, sleep in small individual housing units called hermitages with no radio, no TV, no Internet. They raise and grow most of their own food, funding their operation by making and producing their own brand of coffee called Mystic Monk. They market mugs, bag clips, T-shirts, travel mugs and a CD of their Gregorian chants over the Internet and with mail-order catalogs.  [In this Aug. 26, 2010 photo, rancher Dave Grabbert stands on the 2,500-acre ranch in... (AP Photo/Bob Moen)]  [snip]

 ...  The area has few roads, a few widely dispersed ranch homes, a few scattered oil and gas wells. The ranch is about 14 miles from the nearest public road, and the nearest town, 20 miles away, is Meeteetse, population about 350, that is most famous for the arrest of outlaw Butch Cassidy in 1894.  (AP, hat tip R.J. Godlewski)

I have no opinion of whether this monastery should or should not be built on this spot, that's up to the people in the area.  This situation is nothing like the situation with the Ground Zero mosque because the monks have no desire to proselytize, no desire to bring harm to people, no desire to force some other form of government or religion on their neighbors or citizens of this country.  Hermit monks did not attack the United States, they did not kill innocent Americans, and they have no questionable intentions.  All unlike the Imam Rauf and those connected to Ground Zero mosque. 

This artist's rendering provided by the New Mount Carmel Foundation, Inc., shows a proposed new monastery in Northern Wyoming. A few neighboring ranchers have objected to the plan, citing concerns about traffic, water and wildlife and whether the monastery would fit in with the rural landscape. (AP Photo/New Mount Carmel Foundation, Inc.) 

Comments

[R.J. Godlewski]

Debbie,

The key is that both the Progressives and the Media are extremely anti-Catholic.

These monks are apparently going through the 'independent' route that is distasteful to those who feel that the Gubment must be involved in EVERYTHING.

R.J.

[MK]

"Is Barack Obama and all the other dhimmis standing up and saying the monks have the right to build their monastery on this site? Where's the media, where's the demonstrators, where are the cries of racism at those who are against the monastery? Why isn't New York City complaining that they will be deprived of taxes from the Cordoba House?"

Exactly, where is obongo and his gaggle of dhimmis, whatever happened to freedom of religion and a rights eh.

I think the monks should be supported purely because they're not out to blow us to pieces and slit our throats on youtube.

[GoneWithTheWind]

This is a continuing and growing problem. Churches and other tax exempt organizations are NOT good neighbors when they build elaborate edificies and expect their neighbors to pay their share of the taxes. Why shouldn't religious entities and other tax exempt groups pay their property taxes? Why shoud I be forced to pay higher property taxes to take up the slack. And it is even worse that this particular organization wants to run a profit making business and of course they want THAT to be tax exempt was well. They truely are bad nieghbors.

[rob]

"All unlike the Imam Rauf and those connected to Ground Zero mosque."

Like FOX?

[Marcia Crise]

I understand the concept of "hermit" monks. Someone has internet access in order to market what they make to sustain themselves. If they build this church and monastery, clearly if not these "hermit" monks, there will be other priests to come in and serve and communicate with the people that are to come into this church that will seat 150 people. I would think that there are people living in this area have questions. I do not think the church or the monks have any intent to bring harm.