MIAMI SHORES, FL- St. Rose of Lima Catholic School is a small Pre K-8 school that has been one of the most important bedrock institutions in this northern Miami suburb since it was started in 1951.
And since the start, the school has been staffed and led by nuns.
For the first 30 years, Adrian Dominican Sisters led the school until the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) took over in 1981.
The IHM has supplied the school of roughly 500 with a handful of teachers and a principal since the first year of the Reagan administration, while the rest of the teaching and administration jobs were filled by lay people- some of whom are non Catholics.
All of this changed last Thursday when the school announced that the IHM sisters would not be returning for another year due to the lack of women religious it had to support its mission there.
In a letter, St. Rose’s Principal Sister Bernadette Keane explained to parents why the decision was made:
“Dear Parents, it is with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you as this letter informs you that our community, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, finds it necessary to begin the process of withdrawal from St. Rose of Lima School and Convent as of June, 2016,” the letter reads in part. “For 170 years our Congregation has been faithful to the mission of Catholic education in our Catholic schools. However, at this time we do not have the number of sisters needed to staff the schools we are presently serving.”
Keane went on to thank the St. Rose community for the past 35 years of service.
The reaction was met with anger and outrage by many in the St. Rose community.
A Facebook page called Show your Support for our St Rose IHM Sisters was launched and an online petition designed to keep the nuns at the school is also circulating.
Many parents don’t believe the letter and think that the nuns are being forced out by the Parish Priest, Father Pedro Corces.
Many parents don’t believe the letter and think that the nuns are being forced out by the Parish Priest, Father Pedro Corces.
Salvador Barreiros wanted his kids to go to St. Rose so badly, that he and his wife moved close to the school shortly before the birth of their first child.
Now he has two children at the school and jokes about the potential of his newborn going there as well, “St. Rose may have me for another 14 years.”
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But Barreiros, the Treasurer of the Home and School Board was so angered by the decision that he launched the Facebook page in support of the nuns and the petition calling for the Archdiocese of Miami to do “everything possible to keep the IHM Sisters at St Rose School in Miami Shores.”
According to Barreiros, he went to Sister Keane shortly after receiving the letter and asked her for more clarification about what took place. “Talk to your Pastor,” Keane reportedly told Barreiros and so the concerned dad did just that.
St. Rose of Lima in Miami Shores. Photo Credit: RISE NEWS.
According to Barreiros, Corces said that the IHM was a dying order and that he wanted a lay person to lead the school moving forward.
Corces did not respond to an interview request from RISE NEWS.
In an phone interview with RISE NEWS, Sister Marie Roseanne Bonfini, the Director of IHM Information Services at the order’s Motherhouse in Immaculata, PA said that she didn’t know the specifics for why the nuns at St. Rose were withdrawing but that they will be gladly used in other roles across their ministry.
Bonfini said that the IHM would never have accepted a mission if it couldn’t promise a long-term commitment to the community and that there are many reasons why withdrawal happens- including a lack of qualified personnel and when the Parish Priest decides to not renew a contract with the order.
The IHM nuns at St. Rose are basically contract workers that serve the Church and stay as long as the Parish Priest wants them to.
The IHM nuns at St. Rose are basically contract workers that serve the Church and stay as long as the Parish Priest wants them to.
Bonfini and the other nuns at the Motherhouse had never seen a copy of the letter Sister Keane sent home to the parents last week announcing the withdrawal, until RISE NEWS supplied them with it.
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It is also not clear whether the Motherhouse was aware of the decision in advance.
However, Bonfini and other IHM nuns were aware of the anger and sadness of the St. Rose community displayed online in the aftermath of the decision.
“I understand that the people are upset,” Bonfini said. “We just hope that this can be resolved peacefully.”
Photo Credit: RISE NEWS
While the actual cause of the St. Rose dispute is hotly disputed, there is undoubtedly a real crisis facing the very future of nuns in the United States because not enough young women are joining their ranks.
According to the Washington Post, there were only 56,000 nuns left in the United States in 2013, down from the peak of women religious of 180,000 in 1965.
According to Bonfini, the IHM has 750 sisters serving around the world, including the six currently living at the St. Rose convent.
IHM is withdrawing from three other schools this year due to a lack of nuns available to serve at those schools.
Jai Koch has been a parent at St. Rose for the past six years. She is also the Vice President of the Home and School Board.
Graphic produced by RISE NEWS. Information Source: The Washington Post
Koch said that she believed that the nuns are in good physical shape, vibrant and could potentially stay at St. Rose for another 10 years without much difficulty.
“Sister Bernadette [Keane] spends every free moment with the kids,” She’s a constant presence for the kids. There’s no way to replace her and for what she means for the kids.”
Koch told RISE NEWS that she believed that the nuns had to take the high road and not smear anyone, which is why the letter was sent out.
Many of the comments on the page have called into question the motives of Corces and the Archdiocese of Miami.
“The priest is temporary,” Meike Katrin Espinosa wrote on the pro-nun Facebook page. “We are permanent.”
“The priest is temporary,” Meike Katrin Espinosa wrote on the pro-nun Facebook page. “We are permanent. The nuns are a blessing to our community, that’s why we choose to live here in Miami Shores.”
“It’s a shame our Pastor doesn’t have the appreciation for the Sisters like the parishioners do,” Lawrence Zigmont, a longtime St. Rose parishioner and the husband of the school’s Assistant Principal wrote.
The Archdiocese of Miami stood by the decision, which it said was made by IHM.
“Everyone is upset when change occurs, but the spirit and the memories will continue,” Mary Ross, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese said in a phone conversation. “The Pastor will decide who the next principal is going to be.”
If you want to sign the petition in support of the IHM sisters staying at St. Rose, you can do so by visiting this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keep-our-ihm-sisters-at-st-rose
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Public Disclosure: Ross, The Archdiocese of Miami spokeswoman tried to dissuade RISE NEWS from writing this piece and asked about whether the author viewed the fact that he graduated from St. Rose as a conflict of interest.
No, he doesn’t.
But for the sake of transparency and fairness, it is important for our audience to know that he attended St. Rose from 2002 until he graduated in 2007.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for you us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
Cover Photo Credit: Facebook/ Show Your Support For Our St. Rose Sisters
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This Miami Icon Doesn’t Want Young Haitians To Lose Their Heritage In The US
By Leslie Ovalle
In 1977, after one year in prison for discussing his political beliefs, Jean-Claude Exulien—a secondary school history professor—decided to flee his home in Haiti.
Exulien said that there are times in history when a government cannot be criticized, but he is also quick to remind that as an intellectual and educator, it is impossible to suppress critical discussions.
Exulien fled Haiti during the rule of the dictator “Baby Doc”, or Jean-Claude Duvalier, seeking his own and his family’s safety. He said that if it hadn’t been for Haiti’s suppressive regime many Haitians, including himself, would not have fled the land they feel such patriotism for.
His office in North Miami, decorated with Haitian flags and cultural photographs, is evidence to his love of country.
“I’m a big witness, I would say, of what happened in Haiti during the dictatorship of Francois Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier,” said Exulien, “Haitian intellectuals were obliged to leave the country to save their lives.”
Many Haitians fleeing the regime of the time decided to migrate to Montreal, Canada. This is something that crossed Exulien’s mind, but a summer school teaching opportunity and family here in South Florida is what pushed him to make this city his new home.
“Some friend told me one time ‘it’s not difficult for you, because you used to teach at a higher level.’ I said ‘no it’s not a problem because I love these people, they are my people’. Until today that is my job, to teach them how to write in French, Creole, and English,” explains Exulien.
Knowing Creole, French, English, and Spanish, Exulien embodies the importance of knowing multiple languages in a place as diverse as South Florida.
On his office desk lays an ocean of newspapers—which he refers to as his tools—and in this ocean you can find all four languages. He jokes, although in a serious manner, saying that nowadays if you speak only one language you are handicap.
“Sometimes there are news in El Nuevo Herald or Las Americas and you cannot find the same news in The Herald, for example, so we have to read more than one newspaper and in more than one language,” he said.
On the side of his office cabinet hangs a quote by John Dewey, the liberal philosopher that reads, in all caps: “education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.”Exulien takes education beyond the classroom, besides teaching literacy, history, and anthropology he has a radio show on 1700 AM Radio Mega every Saturday at 11am.
“This is a class, it’s not a radio show,” Exulien said.
His radio segment is 90% Creole and 10% English; where he discusses current events, ideas, and history with his listeners.
A very proud man of his country’s history, he is one of the founders of the Haitian American Historical Society—a non-profit organization seeking the recognition and accuracy of historical events pertaining to Haitians and those of Haitian descent.
In 2007, the organization erected a monument of Les Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint Domingue in Savannah, Gerogia. Les Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint Domingue was a group of Haitian free men who volunteered to fight in The Siege of Savannah on October 9th, 1779 against the British.
“Haitian people died there, in Franklin Square, for the independence of the United States,” said Exulien.
The organization is now working on erecting yet another monument, in St. Augustine, Florida, commemorating General Georges Biassou—a Haitian forefather who fought with Spanish royalists.
Exulien is also the president of the organization Haitian League for Human Rights, INC.
“We created this organization one year ago, because of the situation of [our Haitian] brothers and sisters in Santo Domingo,” said Exulien.
This article was originally published on Rise Miami News.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
Photo Credits: Leslie Ovalle/ RISE NEWS
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HuffPost Deleted That Shameful “Ladies Of The SEC” Piece, But We Saved It So You Can Read It
The internet was aflame last night with many people upset over a piece in the Huffington Post from contributor Rebecca Walden.
Walden penned a piece titled, “Young ladies of the SEC, cover it up!” and boy was it just awful.
Now, it turns out that the Huffington Post wants this all to go away and so they deleted it.
Not a good look HuffPost and not very journalistically sound either.
But have no fear, below you can read the piece as it look on the HuffPost website before it was deleted:
Here is a plain text version: (HT/ SaturdayDownSouth)Dear young ladies of the SEC, can you do us all a solid and start covering it up?
Standing amongst many of you at the recent Alabama-USC game in AT&T Stadium, I was bewildered.
An Alabama student myself not 20 years ago, I remember what fun it was to dress up for football games. My friends and I would scour the racks of Banana Republic and other favorite stores for anything and everything crimson. We’d swap favorite pieces, share accessories and pull together our “best look” week after week, not only for those cute fraternity boys, but also to cheer on the mighty Tide.
What we didn’t want, and what we never did, was to show up for a college football game looking like we belonged in a Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
More than once at that last ballgame, I wished I could have wrapped my elephant scarf around one of you, teetering around on stilettos with your bra straps exposed and operating under the misguided notion that you looked irresistible.
I wondered if your mother knew what you were wearing.
I wanted to tell you that if you’re doing this for a boy, he’s not the one for you.
I wished you understood that a trend can be interpreted as fun and flirty without being tasteless.
Most of all, I hoped you would soon wake up to embrace the ethos shared by higher learning institutions everywhere – class.
That lucky shaker tucked into the back of your on trend boot?
The team logo you’re sporting on your cheek?
The Greek letters sticker on your shirt declaring the sorority to which you belong and your loyalty to your team?
All rendered classless by those ill covered curves you’ve made sure are on full display.
In talking with friends from all over the Southeast after college football’s opening weekend, it was immediately clear that this trend was hardly limited to the students I saw that Saturday.
Not that that made me feel any better.
Families attend these games. Little eyes are watching you.
On behalf of them, and the rest of us who feel embarrassed for you as you walk by, stop baring almost all in the name of game day fashion.
To be clear, I admire individuality and personal style. Team spirit is a precious tradition, and the vastly wide interpretation of any given school’s football culture is part of what makes Saturdays down south so darn fun (not to mention the stuff of people watching legend).
So by all means, be creative. Don your most debonair collegiate colors ensemble. Heck, try to sneak in a flask or two (this is college, after all).
Be young and fun and carefree.
But please, leave the club clothes at home.
Do you have an opinion about this piece and want it published in RISE NEWS? Send it to us at [email protected]
Here is a comment sent in to us by Katherine Y. Carothers, a student at Auburn University:
“You know it’s funny because on my college campus (which by the way I’m here all the time — not just on the game days you come to visit), the man jogging down the street with his shirt off is never seen as tasteless, the frat boys dressed in their embarrassing and frankly tacky pledge gear are considered funny and “builds character,” so besides this post being extremely right winged and strongly sexist — I see where your coming from, but not from the same perspective.
People dress how they feel about themselves and also as they were raised. So instead of addressing “these girls” attire as classless and repulsive, let’s remind ourselves of where it all started.
Shame on the ADULT who never told them they didn’t have to advertise their body to get attention, shame on the ADULT for never teaching their children, both girls and boys, that their clothing is not just what they wear but how they carry themselves, shame on the ADULT who never taught their son or daughter how to look sexy, confident, and cool without exposing every inch of their body.
So instead of body shaming and berating my peers, these young women, someone else’s daughter….hug your “little ones” a little tighter and remind them of their worth…because someone obviously forgot to tell the young woman you’re condemning.”
Not everyone disagrees with the Huffington Post piece.
Here is a comment sent in to us by Luisa Kay Reyes, a student at the University of Alabama.
“My Mother and I were walking around the quad during the tailgating at the last home game versus Western Kentucky and we were pretty shocked.
We’ve been going to the quad for years, so we’re used to the summer dresses worn by the sorority girls. But, now, it seems like the trend is these really, really, really, low cleavages with very short shorts and wedge heels.
We saw so many girls holding the wedge heels in their hands and going barefoot about half-time, as it is really too much for them to handle. And the low cleavages prompted my Mother to say that they looked like a Mexican man, with their shirts unbuttoned down to the navel.
Admittedly, all of the girls we saw were incredibly thin and looked like they could all be walking down the runways of New York or Milan.
But, it came across as “advertising” rather than enjoying the camaraderie of Alabama football.”
Do you have an opinion about this piece and want it published in RISE NEWS? Send it to us at [email protected]
WATCH-What Real “Ladies Of The SEC” Have To Say About That Slut Shaming Piece:
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Here Are Some Of The Best Places To Try During Miami Spice
This piece was originally published by our partner MIAbites.com and is produced by them.
Every August and September, the Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau organizes Miami Spice…two months of specially priced 3 course prix fixe menus designed to encourage locals and visitors to try new places or visit favorites for both lunch and dinner.
Priced at $23 for lunch and $39 for dinner, many of these menus are not only a good value, but for many chefs a chance to create unique and enticing menus and attract new customers and reward the loyal ones.
Now that the kickoff Iron Fork event is over, it is time to get down to business.
Miami Spice 2016 includes over 240 restaurants from Miami Beach, Miami, Coral Gables, Wynwood, Edgewater, MiMo and beyond. Over 90 are new to Spice just for 2016!
There are so many options, that we at MIAbites put our forks together to compile a list of 30 of our favorite Miami Spice options.
Thank you to our passionate MIAbites contributors, Amber Love Bond, Alex Beck, Andrew Giambarba, Jen Massolo, Everett Rashotsky, Marian Bacol-Uba, Allison Riley and Deanna Dominguez for their thoughtful and curated lists.
But, first some Spice Advice:
1. Is this really a deal? Could I eat at the same restaurant anytime of year ordering whatever I wanted from the regular menu for the same price or maybe less?
2. Is the Miami Spice menu interesting? Does it include unique dishes that are not on the regular menu? or is it the cop-out cheapo salmon, chicken and short rib offering?
3. Is a new restaurant I’ve been meaning to try participating?
As always, check menus and restrictions at ILoveMiamiSpice as some restaurants only participate for lunch or not on weekends. And make sure you make reservations and support our incredibly talented local chefs and restaurants these next two months.
Our MIAbites Contributors Best Spice Bites and links to their menu pages are as follows ( in alphabetical order) with special mention to Alter, NaiYaRa, Byblos, Los Fuegos, Mignonette and Proof Pizza and Pastawhich showed up on multiple contributors lists:
1111 Peruvian Bistro – http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/1111-peruvian-bistro/119864
27 Restaurant– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/27-restaurant-and-bar/116723
Alter- http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/alter/117484
Ariete– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/ariete/119213
Bourbon Steak– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/bourbon-steak-miami/34832
Byblos– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/byblos/117072
Cleo– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/cleo/118033
Corsair– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/corsair-kitchen-and-bar/117023
Cypress Tavern– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/cypress-tavern/114339
Dolce– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/dolce-italian/113856
Hakkasan– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/hakkasan-at-fontainebleau-miami-beach/105563
Izzys- http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/izzys-fish-and-oyster/117110
Fooqs– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/fooqs/117840
Kaori– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/kaori-by-walter-martino/119214
KYU– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/kyu/119216
Los Fuegos– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/los-fuegos-by-francis-mallmann/119549
LT Steakhouse– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/lt-steak-and-seafood/36561
Macchialina– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/macchialina/110620
Makoto- http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/makoto/109262
Michaels Genuine– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/michaels-genuine-food-and-drink/33169
Mignonette– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/mignonette/119653
Milos– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/estiatorio-milos-by-costas-spiliadis/111013
NaiYaRa– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/naiyara/118933
Plant Food– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/plant-food-and-wine-miami/119153
Proof Pizza– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/proof-pizza-and-pasta/119712
Sarsaparilla Club– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/the-sarsaparilla-club/119711
Scarpetta– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/scarpetta-at-fontainebleau-miami-beach/105562
Sugarcane– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/sugarcane-raw-bar-grill/106705
Tamarina– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/tamarina-restaurant-and-bar/117172
Tuyo– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/tuyo-at-miami-culinary-institute–miami-dade-collge/110088
Zuma– http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/restaurant/zuma/105265
For more information and complete restaurant listings and menus visit I Love Miami Spice at http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/special-offers/monthly-deals/miami-spice-month
The above was produced by MIAbites, one of the leading sources for food news in South Florida. Be sure to visit their website for more great information.
Cover Photo Credit: Bob B. Brown
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