Blessed Trinity Church’s Father Carney is a man on a mission. Literally.

Father Joe Camey

“Our services in Doral right now (at John I. Smith Elementary) are a kind of outreach—at this point, the families that come to the Doral services would still come to Blessed Trinity, the mother church, for things like weddings and baptisms,” Father Carney said.

However, it does seem like things will stay that way for long, not given the way things have been progressing. Turn out for the fledgling service has been high and grows each week, the area has a large and getting larger Catholic community, and the church already owns land in Doral.

“The diocese purchased land in Doral some time ago—they typically use projections to find out high growth areas ahead of time, until the rest of the process catches up. In Doral’s case, the plot is located near the intersection of NW 102nd Avenue and NW 58th Street,” Father Carney explained.

However, as he alluded to, the process of forming a new church is far more complicated than just buying the land.

First of all, all of the Catholics in the target area need to be registered so that the church can be sure there is a viable basis for the construction of a new church, which also involves the creation of a new parish. The new church must have enough parishioners to support it.

Next, if there is enough interest in the creation of a new facility, the Bishop decides to break that area off (in this case from Blessed Trinity in Sweetwater) to form the new parish. At that time, the Bishop also selects a priest to become pastor of the new parish.

As for a specific timetable as to when that might take place, Father Carney explained that each situation varied, and it was only at the discretion of the Bishop that a new parish might be created.

“It really is hard to say what sort of time table they would follow in Doral—the Bishop checks the reports from local parishes like ours and speaks with those familiar with the area. Once the popular support is there along with the financial support is there, the new parish is created,” he said.

At that point or some time shortly before, a building fund is created. From that building fund, most likely a storefront or warehouse space will be purchased in order to hold services until enough can be raised to build the new facility.

Also, the members of the new parish must purchase the land that the Church currently owns. Father Carney said that many people misunderstand the purpose of that sale.

“Many people think that the Church should just give them the land, but that’s impossible. The money that is paid for the land by the new parish goes into a special Church building fund, which is, in turn, used to buy more land for other future parishes,” Father Carney said.

Father Carney also foresees the new facility having its own school much like that of Blessed Trinity, which has students from pre-kindergarten through the 8th grade.

Currently, the Doral services, led by Father Carney, are held at John I. Smith Elementary at 8:30 every Sunday morning.

“We must have over a hundred people attending every Sunday,” he said, “and they are so enthusiastic. We have young adults volunteering for the choir, another group that sets up a reception afterwards with café cubano and pastelitos and that sort of thing.”

He said later, “It really is exciting to see the enthusiasm of the people coming to church every Sunday. It makes me believe in the ability of that area to eventually build a church and school—I can feel that excitement lift me up every time I go out there,” he said.

Father Carney also spoke highly of the cross-denominational support he received when he sought to start the services in Doral.

“Mrs. Carolyn Casserta (Doral Community Council Vice Chairman) and Mr. Jesse Jones (WDFHA Vice President) were so supportive and suggestive that I speak with the principal of John I. Smith, Marie Harrison. She was so helpful and open to the idea of Sunday services, and we just went from there,” Father Carney said.

Father Carney himself has been at Blessed Trinity for seventeen years (it is a rectory—he lives there as well), and has worked in Florida since 1959 (except to attend a seminary in Cleveland, where he was ordained in 1968).

Ironically enough, the house that now holds Blessed Trinity was built in the forties, and its first owners sold it after a scare from a hurricane—the Church established Blessed Trinity there in 1953.

Not surprisingly, more recently, Hurricane Irene, which flooded Sweetwater so terribly, also did damage to Blessed Trinity.

If you’d like to find out more information about Blessed Trinity, contribute to their hurricane repair fund, or register as a Catholic resident of Doral, you can reach them at 305 871 5780.