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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Our parish in paradise

by Marylynn G. Hewitt, SFO of The Michigan Catholic
Published February 22, 2008

Marylynn G. Hewitt | The Michigan Catholic Fr. Paul Ballien, pastor of St. Ignatius Parish, visits kindergartners at parish school on Grand Cayman.

Marylynn G. Hewitt | The Michigan Catholic Deacon Joe Biggs (from left), Fr. Paul Ballien, secretary May Ursua and associate pastor Fr. Alex Crasta gather in the St. Ignatius parish offices.

George Town, Grand Cayman– Fr. Paul Ballien, a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, goes scuba diving on his days off. The clerical shirts he now wears are white. And getting to a small group of his 1,000-family parish to celebrate Mass involves taking a commercial flight to another island.

Since July he's been the pastor for St. Ignatius Church, the only Catholic parish on the Cayman Islands, about 480 miles south of Miami. The parish has two missions: Christ the Redeemer Chapel in the northwestern part of the 80-square mile Grand Cayman and a chapel on Cayman Brac, an island about 90 miles northeast of Grand Cayman. Ministering in a place where others go for vacation may have some built-in perks, but he insists, "I'm every bit as busy as I was" as pastor for two years at St. Basil the Great Parish in Eastpointe. "I have three churches and a school," he tells a group of visitors from Holy Family, Novi, where he had served as associate pastor. The Golden Dimensions group, those in their "golden" years, plan trips to visit former associate pastors. This is, by far, the longest they've traveled to visit one who served their parish.

Fr. Ballien tells them about his parish schools with 650 K-12 students, 30 percent of whom are Catholic. The parish and schools employ 82 people representing 14 nationalities.

Marylynn G. Hewitt | The Michigan Catholic Fr. Ballien shares a laugh with a student outside a classroom at the parish school.

The parish has been part of the Archdiocese of Detroit since the papal nuncio made the request in 2000. Fr. Michael Molnar served at the Caribbean outpost from that time until last July.

Fr. Ballien says the transition had only a few more details than other priests face when moving between parishes. Though there is the fact that to celebrate the monthly Mass on Cayman Brac involves booking an airline ticket. The group, which usually numbers 25, gathers in a chapel that had been a garage. There are about 80 Catholics on that island "but some won't go unless it is in a church," he says, adding that they hope to have a church erected there sometime in the near future. Bishop John Quinn joined him at the Cayman Brac site in January for a groundbreaking. About half of the $700,000 cost has been raised for the building that will hold 125.

Marylynn G. Hewitt | The Michigan Catholic The interior of St. Ignatius Church on Grand Cayman, the only Catholic parish serving the Cayman Islands.

Marylynn G. Hewitt | The Michigan Catholic Some of the members of Golden Dimensions at Holy Family Parish in Novi visit with Fr. Paul Ballien, who served their parish as associate pastor.

Liturgically, life as the pastor of St. Ignatius is pretty much as it is in the states, he maintains. Mass is offered daily at St. Ignatius and the adoration chapel is open daily 6 a.m. until midnight. There are currently five people enrolled in the RCIA program and his hope is that as time goes on more will be drawn to the faith. "We're hoping for some vocations to come out of here and we have some very strong prospects," he says, adding that he hopes to be seeing young men enrolled in Sacred Heart Major Seminary soon.

The one thing he's found different on the island is that people stay at a gravesite singing until the concrete vault encasing a casket is sealed. Because they are on an island, caskets are not buried deep.

Cayman connection St. Ignatius Parish on Grand Cayman has been a part of the Archdiocese of Detroit since the papal nuncio, on behalf of the Holy Father, made the request in 2000.   The first Catholic parish on the Cayman Islands was established in the 1950s through a few priests from Jamaica. At the time, the Cayman Islands were under the dependency of Jamaica.   In 1962 Jamaica sought and was granted independence from England and then the Caymans reverted to a British dependency.   The parish was part of the Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica until 2000.

There's also the matter of taxes. There are none. No income tax, no property tax, capital gains or corporation tax, thanks to King George III. As a result, in addition to tourism, finance is a big business for the Caymans with reportedly 500 banks based there.

"To come here (Cayman Islands) to work, you must pass an English proficiency test," Fr. Ballien says. "Or have a lot of money to put in the bank so you can buy a house." "Being on an island is a closed community," he says of life on Grand Cayman, which measures 20 miles long and 4 miles wide. "There's a lot more talk. If something happens today, everyone knows tomorrow."

Learning to drive on the left side of the road, and driving from the right side of the car wasn't so difficult, he insists. What was harder to pick up is that the controls for the lights and windshield wipers are also reversed. "It's like doing everything in a mirror."

And on the island, cars are always clean. "If it isn't, people will tell you about it and I've heard you can get a ticket if your car gets too dirty." Which brings him back to one more perk. "With weather like this year round," he says on a sunny winter day with the thermometer holding in the low 80s, "you can always wash your own car."