Monks, A Monastery, and Coffee

While New York is dealing with the construction of a large religious building, there is another similar controversy on the other side of the country, in Meeteetse, Wyoming.  

The Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel want to build a monastery that will have a 150 seat church, inside a 144,000 square foot French Gothic-style compound that will include a coffee roasting barn and living quarters for the monks. Its marker will be a 150 foot spire.

This story caught my eye because they are the Carmelite monks that make “Mystic Monk Coffee”, which I have a banner ad for on this blog site.

The controversy has arisen because some ranchers in the area don’t like the idea of a huge compound in a traditional ranching area. They question the impact the monastery will have on wild life, traffic, and water usage. They also, being a religious institution, won’t be paying any property taxes. I have to wonder if these ranchers see any pluses here. 

The property has already been purchased, zoning approved, plans drawn up. The last legal thing that needs to be addressed is the Park County commissioners need to make the final approval. That’ll happen on Oct. 5, 2010.

These monks started with just two people, have now grown to 18, and several more are applying to join the order.

The traffic issue is interesting. I have to wonder just how much traffic a few monks is going to generate. They have their coffee beans trucked in, and they’ve said they would reduce shipments to once a month. There’s an easement to an irrigation pond that would have to be moved, and the monks said they would take care of that. They also grow most of their own food, so traffic for that would be limited too.  

The site is about 14 miles from the nearest road, and about 20 miles from the nearest town. I could probably do without the spire, but it doesn’t look like it could be seen by anyone nearby. The site sits on 2500 acres.

Unlike like the NY Mosque of Triumph, I really can’t see an issue here. How much of an impact are a few monks praying and roasting coffee beans going to have?

Ranch owner Dave Grabbert, who sold the Order the land said: “What's puzzling to me is if people complain about these guys as neighbors, what kind of neighbors would they want?”