By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
Bishop-designate Peter Baldecchino flashes a smile as he prepares to enter St. Mary Cathedral for the ordination Mass.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Archbishop Thomas Wenski lays hands on Msgr. Peter Baldacchino, calling down the Holy Spirit and ordaining him a bishop, successor to the apostles.
The ordination of Miami�s 10th auxiliary bishop featured bishops from Jamaica and the Bahamas along with flag-waving residents of the Turks and Caicos, where Bishop Peter Baldacchino served for the past 15 years. The merriment even extended to Malta, where the new bishop was born in 1960.
"For us Maltese, this is a celebration as the Church, both local and universal. Everybody rejoices," said John Baldacchino, one of his two younger brothers.
Many of those who filled St. Mary Cathedral March 19 � and sang and danced outside and stretched a banner between two royal palms � were members of the Neocatechumenal Way, as is Bishop Baldacchino himself. Ordained for the Archdiocese of Newark, the 53-year-old is the first graduate of a Neocatechumenal seminary to serve as bishop in North America.�
Representatives of Neocatechetical communities in the Caribbean, as well as the 30 communities in the Archdiocese of Miami, burst into cheers as he entered the cathedral. The bishop-to-be paused, hands folded, then smiled and nodded an acknowledgment. He had taught some of them himself in the Turks and Caicos.
"The Church is alive," said Rafael Madriga, one of several guitarists and drummers playing, singing and dancing outside the cathedral just before the ordination. "People think churches are empty, but look at all the youth here. And celebrating a new bishop is a huge thing."
Indeed, the crowd also showed the devotional and ethnic diversity of the archdiocese. They included religious sisters from orders based in India, Nigeria, Tanzania and elsewhere, wearing habits of brown, white, blue-white, or striped saris. Seven plume-hatted, sword-bearing Knights of Columbus formed an honor guard, as did two green-clad Knights of St. Gregory.
The clerical procession included most of the archdiocesan priests, plus most of the bishops of the Florida Province. Also taking part were two military, benevolent and educational lay orders: Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, their white robes bearing large Jerusalem crosses; and black-robed Knights and Dames of Malta, heirs of an organization born on that island.
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
Bishop Peter Baldacchino speaks at the end of his ordination ceremony at the cathedral.
Standing out in the procession was retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington D.C., his bright red cardinal's robes blazing in the tropical sun. As the former archbishop of Newark, he ordained Bishop Baldacchino as a priest on the latter's graduation from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in that archdiocese.
�I have ordained more than 350 men; this is the first one to become a bishop," the cardinal said. "I�m so proud of him. What a joy he will be to the Church in Miami.�
Also ordained from that same seminary class was Father Alfonso Di Giovanni, now vicar general of Estonia. He recalled a prediction by Archbishop McCarrick during the ordination: ��From this year, someone will become important.��
"So we are very happy that Father Peter has been an instrument to fulfill the words of the cardinal," said Father Di Giovanni, a native of Salerno, Italy. "It�s a great joy for the Church, for Miami, for all of us. It�s fantastic.�
The solemn ordination ritual had Msgr. Baldacchino kneel before Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who laid his hands on his head, calling down the Holy Spirit and by virtue of that gesture � done in complete silence � ordaining him a bishop. Then all the other bishops present did so in turn.
A few moments later the archbishop anointed Bishop Baldacchino with the oil of chrism and gave him the three symbols of his new office � the ring, the miter and the crosier. As the archbishop led his new auxiliary to a seat with all the other bishops in the sanctuary, the congregation burst into spontaneous applause.
In his first remarks as auxiliary, Bishop Baldacchino noted the great variety of those assembled: not only from the Miami Archdiocese, but Newark, Malta and the Turks and Caicos.
"This great sign of unity that we live both confirms us in our faith and compels us to share that faith with others," he said in his elegant English accent. "God is beginning a new chapter in the building up of his kingdom."
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Bishop Peter Baldacchino's sister, Paula Muscat, and his brother, John, wave the flag of Malta as he walks through the church giving his first blessing to the congregation.
The relationship seemed a godsend to an empty nester: Her father had just died and both her kids had left the house, one to get married, the other to go to college.
�He was the gift my father sent me through the Holy Spirit," she said of Bishop Baldacchino. �I pray for him every day. His joy is my joy. My joy is his joy, too.�
Her husband, John, said she had once predicted that �pretty soon he�s going to be a bishop.�
Paula Muscat, Bishop Baldacchino's sister, brought with her from Malta a picture of their mother, who died in 2001. "I am convinced that she has prayed for him so much,� she explained.
The bishop�s 85-year-old father could not make it in person but was reportedly watching the ceremony via the Internet.
Muscat was helping sew curtains at a cousin's house when her brother called her Feb. 20 � the day his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Miami was announced. "I was worried at first, because it's very unusual for him to call me on my mobile," she said.
Then she heard the news. "Are you serious? Are you telling the truth?" she asked repeatedly through tears. Then she hurried to phone her brothers. "It felt like I was living in space!" she said.
The bishop�s brother was not surprised at the appointment to bishop, he said at a reception after the ordination, held at St. Mary's School just south of the cathedral.
"If you�ve gone through formation of faith, everything is possible," said John Baldacchino, a resident of the Maltese village of Fgura. "Some people are called to be in families, some as priests, and some priests are called to be bishops. No matter your profession, you carry Christ wherever he wants to be."
Crowds began arriving at the cathedral more than an hour before the ordination, curling in a line around the north side to avoid the midday sun. Ten minutes beforehand, however, ushers apologetically told everyone that the 1,200 seats inside were full, leaving more than 60 people outside. But just before Communion, about half of them were allowed into a side chapel.
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who ordained Bishop Peter Baldacchino as a priest for the Newark archdiocese, enters the cathedral followed by a Knight of St. Gregory.
Berne and Irma Henneberg came to St. Mary with their three children from Weston, where they attend St. Bonaventure Parish. Irma Henneberg is managing director of a shipping company that has supplied then-Father Baldacchino with missals and schoolbooks since 2005.
In that time, he has befriended the whole family. Irma Henneberg visited the Turks and Caicos monthly, attending Mass at now-Bishop Baldacchino�s church in Providenciales. He once heard Berne Henneberg�s confession on a picnic table behind the church. And he visited South Florida for the first Communion of their daughter Tessa.�
"He's a wonderful guy," Irma Henneberg said. "And very humble. I asked him to pray for my grandson, and he asked me to pray for him. When he left the island, everyone cried � it was like a funeral."�
Still, Janet Sevilla took heart in a prime teaching of the Neocatechumenal Way. "We are all in mission. When God calls, you must follow. This is Father Baldacchino's new mission."
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
Members of the Neocatechumenal Way play exuberantly before the ordination ceremony for Bishop Peter Baldacchino, himself a member of the group.
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