By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Eighteen priests serving in the Archdiocese of Miami, including one marking 70 years of ordination and six Jesuits, four of whom were ordained on the same day at Miami’s Gesu Church, were honored by Archbishop Thomas Wenski and their fellow priests during the annual chrism Mass, celebrated the Tuesday of Holy Week, April 12, 2022, at St. Mary Cathedral.

Archbishop Wenski also was honored because in September he will be marking 25 years of ordination as a bishop. (Read his homily here.)

Following are brief biographies of the jubilarians.

 

 

DIAMOND JUBILARIANS - 70 YEARS

Msgr. Emilio Martín

Born Nov. 23, 1928, in Zamora, Spain, Msgr. Martín attended the diocesan seminary in Tuy and was ordained Feb. 17, 1952. He served in Spain until 1959, when he moved to the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, to serve the Mexican and Spanish-speaking community. He came to the then-Diocese of Miami in 1961 and was incardinated June 3, 1969. His assignments here included parochial vicar at St. Charles Borromeo in Port Charlotte, then part of the Miami diocese (1961-64); at St. John the Apostle in Hialeah (1964-65 and 1968-70); at St. Thomas the Apostle in Miami (1965-67); at Immaculate Conception in Hialeah (1967-68); and at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West (1970). From 1972 to 1992 he served as founding pastor of St. Joachim in South Miami Heights. He returned to St. John the Apostle as pastor in 1992 and remained there until his retirement in October 2012. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI granted him the title of monsignor.

 

 

60 YEARS

Msgr. José Luis Hernando

Born Feb. 23, 1939, in Villalba de Duero, Burgos, Spain, Msgr. Hernando was ordained June 24, 1962, for the Archdiocese of Madrid. Two years later, he came to South Florida as a missionary, as part of the Spanish bishops’ organization, Obra de Cooperación Sacerdotal Hispano Americana (OCSHA), and was appointed parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Church, Homestead. Other parishes where he served as parochial vicar include: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (now Holy Rosary-St. Richard) in Palmetto Bay; St. Philip Benizi in Belle Glade (then part of the Diocese of Miami); St. Patrick, Miami Beach; St. Brendan, Miami; St. Monica, Miami Gardens; and Our Lady of the Lakes, Miami Lakes. He served as administrator of St. Ann Mission in Naranja from 1967 to 1969 and St. Benedict in Hialeah from 1977 to 1989. He was incardinated – becoming a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami – May 13, 1986. In 1989, he joined the faculty at St. John Vianney Seminary, and in 1991 became director of the Permanent Diaconate Office. Throughout that time, he also served as director of the Spanish-speaking Cursillo movement; assistant director of vocations; member of the Radio and TV Commission and the Committee on Popular Piety; member of the first archdiocesan Synod; archbishop’s representative to the Priests’ Personnel Board; dean of the East Dade Deanery; president of Pax Catholic Communications; and columnist for La Voz Católica. In 1993, he became pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Key Biscayne, where he served until his retirement in June 2014. He was named a monsignor in 2013.

 

 

Father Juan M. López

Father López was born June 20, 1938, in Medina de Pomar, Burgos, Spain. He studied at the Seminario Metropolitano in Burgos for 10 years and at the Colegio Teológico Hispano Americano for two more before being ordained June 24, 1962, for the Archdiocese of Burgos, Spain. He arrived in South Florida in September 1964 and served as parochial vicar at St. Rose of Lima, Miami Shores (1964-66 and 1970-71), St. Michael, Miami (1966-67), St. Mary Cathedral (1967-69), St. Brendan, Miami (1969-70), and Immaculate Conception, Hialeah (1971-73). In June 1973, he was named administrator of St. Ann Mission in Naranja, where he served until June 1983, when he was named administrator of St. Raymond in Miami. In April 1988, he was named to his current post as administrator and then pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Miami.

 

 

Father Sean Mulcahy

Father Mulcahy, born Feb. 2, 1937, in Killahee, County Clare, Ireland, studied at Ballinefad College, County Mayo, and All Hallow’s College, Dublin, before being ordained there Feb. 17, 1962, for the then-Diocese of Miami. His assignments in South Florida included: parochial vicar at Epiphany, South Miami (1962-63); at Little Flower, Hollywood (1963-66); at St. Timothy, Miami (1966-67); at Little Flower, Coral Gables (1968-70); and at St. Ignatius Loyola, Palm Beach Gardens (1970-76), then part of the Archdiocese of Miami. After doing post-graduate studies at the University of St. Louis, he served as a staff member of the Family Counseling Center in Miami from 1968 to 1970; and concurrently as director of the Family Counseling Center in Palm Beach County and on the staff of the Catholic Service Bureau there, from 1970 to the end of 1975. In January 1976, he was appointed administrator and later pastor of St. Maurice Church in Fort Lauderdale (now St. Maurice at Resurrection) from where he retired in June 2006.

 

 

Father José Luis Paniagua

Father Paniagua was born July 26, 1937, in Fuentelapeña, Zamora, Spain. He studied at the seminary in Zamora and the Colegio Teológico Hispano Americano in Madrid. Ordained April 7, 1962, for the Diocese of Zamora, he arrived in the then-Diocese of Miami Sept. 12, 1964. He began serving as parochial vicar at St. Vincent Ferrer in Delray Beach (then part of the Miami diocese), with additional responsibilities for the care of migrants in the Lake Worth area. In December 1965, he was named administrator of Our Lady Queen of Peace Mission in Delray Beach, where he served until October 1969, when he was named parochial vicar at Corpus Christi in Miami. He served as parochial vicar at Sts. Peter and Paul in Miami (1970-76) and St. Hugh, Coconut Grove (1976-78) until being named pastor of Corpus Christi in June 1978. In January 1989, he was named administrator, and later pastor, of St. Benedict in Hialeah, from where he retired in June 2018. In his honor, the city of Hialeah designated West 78th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, as Rev. Jose Luis Paniagua Way in 2013. 

 

 

GOLDEN JUBILARIANS - 50 YEARS

 

Father Guillermo (Willie) Arias, Jesuits

Born in Havana, Cuba, Jan. 2, 1942, Father Arias entered the Jesuit novitiate in Los Teques, Venezuela, in 1961. During his formation process, he studied classics in Venezuela, philosophy in Ecuador, and theology in Toronto. He has master’s degrees in theology and education. As a young Jesuit, he taught religion and was a guidance counselor at Instituto Politécnico Loyola in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. Ordained June 24, 1972, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he served on the island in various capacities on and off for over 25 years. From 1973 to 1998, he served as spiritual director at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach. In 1998, he became spiritual director at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, where he served until 2015, when he became campus minister at Jesuit High School in Tampa. He returned to Miami in 2017 and now serves as spiritual counselor at Belen Jesuit Prep.

 

 

Father Isidore Baky

Father Baky was born April 24, 1946, in Ha-Nam-Ninh, Vietnam, and completed high school in the seminary. He continued his studies in philosophy and theology at St. Joseph Seminary in Saigon and was ordained April 28, 1972, for the Archdiocese of Saigon. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1974 from the University of Saigon and a bachelor’s degree in education in 1988 from the University of West Florida in Pensacola. He served in his native Vietnam until 1982, when he came to Florida to study. He worked in parishes and as a nursing home and hospital chaplain in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee until 1990, when he moved to South Florida. In June 1990, he was named parochial vicar at St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pembroke Pines, while also serving the Vietnamese Apostolate in the archdiocese. He served at St. Max until 1992, then as parochial vicar at Visitation in Miami until 1996, and finally as parochial vicar at St. Helen in Fort Lauderdale from 1996 until his retirement from fulltime ministry in December 2011.

 

 

Father Eduardo Barrios, Jesuits

Born July 11, 1943, in Bayamo, Cuba, Father Barrios arrived in the U.S. in October 1961 and entered the Jesuit novitiate in Venezuela the following year. He studied philosophy at Fordham University (1965-67), then, as a Jesuit regent, taught Spanish and social studies at Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami (1967-69). After five years of theological studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was ordained at Miami’s Gesu Church on June 24, 1972. He started his priestly ministry at St. Hugh in Coconut Grove, and in 1974 moved to the Dominican Republic, where he served for 23 years. During the summers, he substituted for priests in Miami parishes, including St. Michael the Archangel, Sts. Peter & Paul, Epiphany and St. Joachim. He also has served or helped at Gesu, St. Kieran, St. Raymond, Our Lady of Divine Providence and Mother of Christ. He taught theology at Belen from 1979 to 1981 and came back in 1998 and again in 2002 as spiritual counselor. Since then, he has stayed at Belen, currently serving in the Office of Campus Ministry. In 1986, he began writing articles on religious matters for La Voz Católica in Miami. He also blogs for the Archdiocese of Miami’s Let’s Talk feature and is a frequent contributor to El Nuevo Herald and publications in the Dominican Republic. In 2013, he received the Church’s highest honor, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross.

 

 

Father Alberto García, Jesuits

Father García was born Dec. 11, 1943, in Havana, Cuba. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Venezuela in April 1961 and taught at Belen Jesuit in Miami from 1967 to 1969. On June 24, 1972, he was ordained for the Jesuit Order, Antilles Province, at Gesu Church in Miami. He served as principal at Belen from 1974 to 1977. After obtaining a master’s degree in education and then a master’s in counseling psychology from Loyola University of Chicago, he worked in the Dominican Republic from 1979 to 2001 and in Cuba from 2001 to 2015. Currently, he serves as the spiritual counselor for faculty and staff at Belen and as superior of the Miami Jesuits.

 

 

Father Pedro González-Llorente, Jesuits

Born June 29, 1940, in Havana, Cuba, Father González-Llorente studied at Colegio de Belen and Universidad de La Habana before entering the Society of Jesus in 1961. He studied at Loyola Seminary on the campus of Fordham University in New York and at Louvain Seminary in Belgium and was ordained July 30, 1972, in Venezuela. He worked in Catholic radio production in La Vega, Dominican Republic (1973-77) and as a parish priest in Caracas, Venezuela (1977-79) before returning to the Dominican Republic, where he served in various capacities – teaching, radio production, spiritual direction – until 2004, when he returned to his native Cuba to serve in the Archdiocese of Havana. He came to Miami in 2010 and became spiritual director at the Centro de Espiritualidad Ignaciana (Ignatian Spirituality Center), where he now serves as assistant director.

 

 

Father Peter Lambert

A native of Galway, Ireland, Father Lambert was born May 22, 1967. He studied at Kilbeacanty National School; Our Lady’s College, Gort; University College, Dublin; and All Hallows College, Dublin; and was ordained June 18, 1972, in Ireland for the Archdiocese of Miami. His first assignment was as parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (now Holy Rosary-St. Richard) in Palmetto Bay. A year later, in June 1973, he was named parochial vicar at St. Coleman, Pompano Beach, and faculty member at Cardinal Gibbons High School, Fort Lauderdale. In 1974, he was named parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist in Fort Lauderdale while continuing at Gibbons. He served as assistant principal at St. Thomas Aquinas High and as parochial vicar at St. Clement, both in Fort Lauderdale, from 1975 until his appointment in 1978 as parochial vicar at St. Juliana in West Palm Beach (then part of the Archdiocese of Miami). In 1982, he became parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Lakes, Miami Lakes, and part time campus minister at Miami Dade College North. From 1985 to 1987 he was parochial vicar at Little Flower in Hollywood. He served as administrator at Our Lady of Mercy in Deerfield Beach from 1987 to 1995, when he became pastor of St. Clement. He served there until September 2009. After returning from sabbatical in June 2011, he began serving as parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Lakes until his retirement in June 2017.

 

 

Father Manuel Maza, Jesuits

Father Maza was born Jan. 19, 1945, in Havana, Cuba. He received his ecclesiastical formation at the Instituto San José Pignatelli, Los Teques, Venezuela, from 1962 to 1965; then Loyola Seminary, Shrub Oak, New York, from 1965 to 1967; Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, Miami, from 1967 to 1969; and finally at the Institut Saint Albert in Belgium from 1969 to 1972. On June 24, 1972, he was ordained for the Jesuit Order, Antilles Province, at Gesu Church in Miami. He then attended Bellarmine School of Theology, Chicago (1972-74), and Collegio Bellarmino, Rome (1974-75). Since 1987 he has been a professor of theology and Church history at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) in the Dominican Republic. He also taught history at the Instituto Superior Pedro Francisco Bonó (1987–2012) and PUCMM (2012–21), all in the Dominican Republic. In addition to contributing articles and columns to publications in the Dominican Republic, Father Maza has authored several books on the history of the Catholic Church, at least six of which deal with the Catholic Church in Cuba. From 1995 to 2012, he was advisor to the Christian Life Communities of the Dominican Republic, and from 2012 to 2021 to the Asociación de Empresarios Cristianos de Santiago de los Caballeros (ACES). Father Maza currently helps at Casa Manresa retreat house and the Centro de Espiritualidad Ignaciana in Miami, as well as Belen Jesuit.

 

 

Father Joaquín Rodriguez

Born Aug. 28, 1946, in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba, Father Rodríguez attended El Buen Pastor and San Carlos y San Ambrosio seminaries, both in Havana. He was ordained July 2, 1972, for the Diocese of Matanzas. He worked as a pastor in Cuba until coming to the Archdiocese of Miami in February 1991, when he began serving at St. John Bosco in Miami. In June 1992, he was named parochial vicar at Sts. Peter and Paul, Miami; then St. Hugh, Coconut Grove (1996-97), Our Lady of Lourdes, Miami (1997-2000), St. Thomas the Apostle, Miami (2000), and Blessed Trinity, Miami Springs (2000-05). In July 2005, he became administrator, and later pastor, of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Opa-Locka, where he remained until the parish merged with St. James, North Miami, in September 2009. He returned to St. Thomas the Apostle as parochial vicar from October 2009 to October 2010, when he was named to his current assignment as pastor of St. Martin de Porres in Leisure City.

 

 

Father Juan Sosa

Father Sosa, born Jan. 24, 1947, in Havana, Cuba, came to the U.S. in October 1961 via the Pedro Pan airlift of unaccompanied minors. He entered St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami as a junior in high school and continued his studies at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach. On May 20, 1972, he became one of the first Cuban priests ordained for the Archdiocese of Miami. He served as parochial vicar at St. Mary Cathedral (1972-77 and 1981-85) and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Fort Lauderdale (1977-79); associate director of religious education for the archdiocese (1975-81), associate rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity (1979-81) and co-director of the permanent diaconate program (1979-1984). From 1984 to 2001 he served as executive director of the Office of Worship and Spiritual Life. He is a published author and composer who also serves as president of the Instituto Nacional Hispano de Liturgia, Inc., and as consultor to the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship. He served as pastor of St. James in North Miami (1985-91), and administrator and then pastor of St. Catherine of Siena in Kendall (1991-2010) until his appointment in 2010 to his current post as pastor of St. Joseph, Miami Beach. He also has chaired the archdiocesan Committee on Popular Piety since 1978.

 

 

Father Pedro Suarez, Jesuits

Father Suárez was born Oct. 20, 1941, in Havana, Cuba. He graduated from El Colegio de Belén there in 1958 and studied architecture at the Universidad Católica de Santo Tomás de Villanueva (1958-1961). He entered the Society of Jesus at the Instituto Pignatelli in Los Teques, Venezuela, on April 9, 1961, studied philosophy at Fordham University’s Loyola Seminary (1964-1966), and taught during his regency at the Colegio Loyola in the Dominican Republic (1966-1967). He received a master’s in mathematics from the University of Miami (1969) and a master’s in divinity from Loyola University-Chicago (1973). He was ordained at Gesu Church in Miami on June 24, 1972. He received a doctorate in mathematics from Northwestern University (1977) and worked in the Dominican Republic from 1977 until his return to Miami in 1987. He was a professor at Barry University (1987-2008) and chair of its Department of Mathematics and Computer Science for 11 years. He has been a member of the Jesuit-founded Clavius Group of Mathematicians since 1971. He served as superior to the Miami Jesuits from 1991 to 1997, and again from 2010 to 2016. He served as president of Belen Jesuit Prep from 2009 to 2016. Currently, he serves as president and chairman of Regis House in Miami and as a spiritual counselor at Belen.

 

 

SILVER JUBILARIANS - 25 YEARS

 

Father Luis Garcia

 

Born Jan. 21, 1953, in Havana, Cuba, Father Garcia completed elementary school in Spain, where he had emigrated with his parents. He left Spain to move in with relatives in Kansas, where he attended college. He finished his studies at Florida International University, obtaining a degree in accounting. For the next 16 years, he worked as an accountant for Florida Power and Light. He entered the seminary at age 39 and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Miami on May 10, 1997. He served as parochial vicar at Corpus Christi, Miami (1997-98); Immaculate Conception, Hialeah (1998-2000); St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pembroke Pines (2000-02); and St. Cecilia, Hialeah (2002-04), where he was named administrator and later pastor (2004-09). From 2004 to 2007, he also served as spiritual director of the Hialeah-based Movimiento Familiar Cristiano. He then served as parochial vicar at St. Coleman, Pompano Beach (2009-10 and 2011-13), pastor of St. Raymond, Miami (2010-11), parochial vicar at St. Kieran, Miami (2013-14) and chaplain at Mercy Hospital with residence at St. Kieran (2014-15). In March 2015, he was named case facilitator at the archdiocese’s Metropolitan Tribunal with residence at St. Mary Cathedral. He served at the Tribunal until his retirement in June 2018.

 

 

Father Yunping Peter Lin

Father Lin was born May 1, 1971, in Weinan, China, and ordained Jan. 6, 1997, for the Diocese of Weinan. He studied at Shaanxi Major Seminary in Xi’an, Shaanxi Normal University in Weinan and obtained a master’s degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in 2005. After ordination, he served as professor to seminarians at Shaanxi Minor Seminary in Xi’an (1997-2002), as secretary to the bishop of Weinan (2005-09) and as pastor of Nanqui Parish there (2007-09). After coming to South Florida to study at St. Thomas University, he began serving the Chinese Apostolate based at St. Jerome Parish in Fort Lauderdale. In 2013, he was appointed to the Apostleship of the Sea, where he serves as chaplain to seafarers at Port Everglades.

 

 

Father Fernando Orejuela, Asociación de la Inmaculada Concepción

Father Orejuela was born in Cali, Colombia, March 23, 1964, and obtained a law degree in 1990 from San Buenaventura University in Cali, where he also earned a bachelor’s in philosophy in 1993. He earned a bachelor’s in theology from Our Lady of Carmen Seminary in Restrepo, Meta, Colombia, in 1996, and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Villavicencio there on June 22, 1997. He served in Restrepo as pastor, novice master and general superior of his religious community, the Asociación de la Inmaculada Concepcion (AIC) until 2011. In 2010, he became incardinated in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France, and in August 2011 he began serving as vicar general of the Immaculate Conception community. While in Colombia, he also served as general director of the Restrepo-based Mercy Home Foundation and spiritual director of the Bogota-based Sons of the Mother of God, a private lay association of the faithful. He came to South Florida in September 2011 and in July 2012 was named parochial vicar at Our Lady of Lourdes in Miami. In June 2013, he was named to his current post as administrator of St. Boniface Parish in Pembroke Pines. Since August 2015, he also serves as adjunct spiritual director at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.