BAHAMAS


ECONOMY:
The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism alone accounts for more than 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs 40% of the archipelago's labor force. Moderate growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences led to an increase of the country's GDP by an estimated 3% in 1998. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute less than 10% of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run will depend heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector and continued income growth in the US, which accounts for the majority of tourist visitors.


DESCRIPTION
Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking and investment management.

On 2 February, 1891 Father Chrysostom Schreiner, OSB, the first Benedictine monk of Saint John's to work in The Bahamas, arrived in Nassau. Through the efforts of resigned Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, OSB, who wished to begin a monastic community in New York City, the Benedictine monks of Saint John's were given the care of the Catholics in The Bahamas by Archbishop Corrigan.
The archbishop had given Abbot Alexius a New York parish (Saint Anselm's) with the stipulation that the Benedictines take over charge of The Bahamas, which were assigned by the Holy See to the jurisdiction and pastoral care of the Archdiocese of New York. The well-situated New York parish was to be a source of ready income for support of the missionary efforts of the Archdiocese in The Bahamas. The monastic chapter of Saint John's Abbey for years had no official association with the project, but did send some individuals in sympathetic response to the convincing propaganda of Abbot Alexius.

As members of Saint John's community were able to visit the Islands and slowly came to understand the need and potential of this mission field, the work became, in time, an integral part of the abbey's life and common mission. Abbot Alexius had broadened the community's vision during fourteen previous years and led it from an initial apostolate solely among German Catholic immigrants into new efforts in several fields. These included an expanded education endeavor in an American mold, service to Catholic immigrant peoples of national origins other than German, Indian mission activity, and vigorous application of the Benedictine principle that an abbey must be constantly in the process of establishing new daughter abbeys even as it anchors itself ever more firmly in its native soil.

The Bahama Islands, windfall of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the New World, embrace nearly 700 islands and more than 2,000 cays and rocks lying off the eastern coast of Florida. The Arawak Indians Columbus found there, and called ‘Lucayans', disappeared under the pressures of European colonization and were gradually replaced in the eighteenth century by the many tribes of African slaves deposited in the Bahamas to grow cotton, sisal for rope making, pineapples and tomatoes. When England replaced Spain as an empire builder in America, the islands passed inevitably under the control of the British Sovereign and commercial interests.

Father Chrysostom took over from Father Reilly, the only priest in Nassau at the time, on 1 May 1891. He gave a report to the archbishop in which he mentioned there were only fifty practicing Catholics on the island.
Father Paul Rettenmaier, from Saint John's, joined Father Chrysostom later that year and along with several others they explored some of the islands. On one of the trips their ship hit a rock and sunk. Five hours of hard work brought them and the crew ashore. During these harrowing hours Chrysostom made a vow that if his life was spared he would remain in The Bahamas for the rest of his days as a missionary.