Florida Catholic | St. Leo New Abbot

LEE DIEKEMPER | FC
Abbot Issac Camacho at his Abbatial Blessing.

New abbot: ‘This is a tremendous day in my life’

LEE DIEKEMPER | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 12.14.07

ST. LEO | Abbot Isaac Camacho has learned in a short period of time that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Seven years ago, Abbot Camacho was not even a priest. Now, at the age of 43, he has been newly installed as abbot of Saint Leo Abbey in St. Leo.

“This something I was not expecting,” he said.

Abbot Camacho, who joined the abbey in 1992, is the sixth abbot in Saint Leo Abbey’s history, and the first elected in 11 years. He was installed Dec. 1 at Saint Leo Abbey church at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Robert N. Lynch in front of hundreds of well-wishers, as well as the worldwide president of the Benedictine order, Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, Order of St. Benedict, of San Anselmo Abbey in Rome.

Normally, an abbot, the spiritual leader and administrator of a monastery, is one of the elder members of an abbey, and is chosen by the community’s monks and priests. But Abbot Camacho is one of the younger members of the community.

“I think this is an honor,” said Abbot Camacho, a native of Mexico City. “But at the same time, it is something heavy on my shoulders. The responsibility is great. But I have to carry on the job. I am the youngest, so you can imagine the responsibility,” he said.

He quipped, “I’m not sure if it was bad luck for me or good luck.”

Abbot Camacho became a Benedictine monk at Tepeyac Abbey in Mexico in 1998. Feeling called to the priesthood and at the urging of friends and fellow monks, he came to Saint Leo Abbey in 1991, where he began his studies. He was ordained a priest in 2001.

Abbot Camacho compared his duties as abbot to Bishop Lynch’s as bishop of a diocese. “It’s almost the same as the bishop,” Camacho said. “The bishop becomes the father of the priests of the diocese. I become the father of the monks.”

The abbey currently has eight priests, twelve brothers and a community member who is an internal oblate.

Bishop Lynch was impressed with Abbot Camacho’s works and his dealings with parishioners at St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in New Tampa, where Abbot Camacho worked before he became a priest.

“He has been incredibly effective,” Bishop Lynch said. “He helped me at St. Mark’s and is much loved as you can see here by the people. I think he has a pastor’s heart, which will help him shepherd this community, hopefully to grow,” Bishop Lynch said. “Our diocesan tradition is rich in Saint Leo history. The Benedictines started almost all of our parishes in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. So we want them to do well and to grow, and I think he can accomplish that.”

“For many people, I know, they have no clue that we are in the community,” Abbot Camacho said. “The monks have existed here for 118 years. I want to make the community know we are here. I want the community to grow and I want this to be a place where people can find reconciliation and good liturgy. I want Saint Leo to be a place where they can come to find an encounter with God.”

At the installation Mass, Bishop Lynch said to Abbot Camacho, “You have been blessed with wisdom and you have received this blessing not just for yourself, but for the community and the church.”

Nearing the end of the ceremony, Abbot Wolf said to Abbot Camacho, “This is an important step for you and your community. I hope you will experience not just concern, but joy. If you have as much joy as I have among my brothers, life will be beautiful. I hope you see your abbey as giving life to your community and to the world.”

His election still comes as a surprise to the new abbot.

“If someone would have come to me 20 years ago and asked, ‘Do you ever think about entering a monastery life?’ I would have said, ‘No,’” he said. “And when I became a monk, that’s all I wanted to be. Now look at me today. This is a tremendous day in my life.”

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New abbot: ‘This is a tremendous day in my life’

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