By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami
MIAMI | A memorial Mass will be celebrated sometime in April for Father José M. Paz, longtime pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Miami, who died unexpectedly March 26 in his native Spain.
“I think it was a matter of 48 hours,” said Father Jose Hernando, pastor emeritus of St. Agnes Church, Key Biscayne, and a fellow Spaniard. “He planned to come back Monday to be here for Holy Week, but God had other plans. He went ahead to celebrate Easter in heaven.”
Father Jose M. Paz: Born June 12, 1929; ordained May 31, 1952; died March 26, 2018.
Father Paz, 88, served as pastor of St. Michael for 30 years, from 1978 until his retirement in 2008. He had been a priest for nearly 66 years, all but the first 10 in the Archdiocese of Miami.
“I grew up with him at St. Michael,” said Deacon Sergio Rodicio, who currently works at St. Mary Cathedral. The two grew close over the years. Father Paz vested Deacon Rodicio at his ordination in December.
“He’s gallego and my family is from Galicia,” Deacon Rodicio said, referring to the northwestern region of Spain where Father Paz was born. “So especially after my father passed away we became very close. He was one of those good old Spanish priests who was always working very hard for his people.”
Carmen Alfonso, who became St. Michael School’s first lay principal in 2004, used similar words to describe her former boss. She called him “a man of God, always willing to help people from his parish and his friends.”
She recalled that he “adored” his family � a brother, a sister and nephews � and “always smiled when a person came to him for advice in times of difficulties.”
Both Deacon Rodicio and Father Hernando noted that Father Paz lived up to his surname: peace.
“No doubt he created and emanated peace at every moment, especially in difficult and complicated situations,” Father Hernando wrote in a tribute to his friend. “Speaking with him meant being infected by his serenity and tranquility, which emerged in his words, always correct and convincing.”
As a priest, Father Hernando added, Father Paz was “a man of God, compassionate, patient, always open in mind and heart to understand and encourage, always optimistic and full of hope � For him, there were no problems that could not be resolved by the grace of God and human means.”
Deacon Rodicio said Father Paz had many talents: He repaired plaster statues, could fix any lock, was an avid reader and an expert beekeeper. He and a retired priest who helped at St. Michael cultivated their own honey and “knew everything about bees,” the deacon said.
Father Paz also was an expert cook who loved fishing and eating seafood, Father Hernando said. That love of the sea � a result of growing up in Galicia, which abuts both the Atlantic and Cantabrian � moved him to concern for the sailors who spend long months of hard toil on the water.
Father Paz started the Apostleship of the Sea in the Archdiocese of Miami, Father Hernando said, opening a building at the Port of Miami which he christened Stella Maris in honor of the Virgin Mary, Star of the Sea. It remains a place where those working on cruise ships or cargo vessels can come during the brief hours between sailings to use the telephones or computers, to communicate with their families or catch up on the news.
“And above all they knew that Father Paz would be there to listen to them, hear their confessions, encourage them, evangelize them and celebrate Mass for them,” Father Hernando wrote.
He would also intercede to “improve the working conditions of those on cruise ships,” said Araceli Cantero, recalling her reporting on the Apostleship of the Sea when she was editor of La Voz Católica, the archdiocese’s Spanish-language newspaper.
Born June 12, 1929 in la Coruña, one of the provinces of Galicia, Father Paz studied at the seminary in Santiago de Compostela � the final destination for pilgrims walking the ancient Camino de Santiago. He was ordained May 31, 1952 for the Diocese of Mondoñedo-El Ferrol and served as pastor of a parish in Lugo until September 1956, when he joined the Obra de Cooperación Sacerdotal Hispano Americana (OCSHA) and became a missionary in Cuba. From 1957 to 1961 he served as pastor of San Miguel de Manatí in Oriente, now part of the Diocese of Holguín.
“Despite his advanced age, he still dreamed of being able to travel to Cuba and visit Manatí,” said Cantero. “Some people in that area of the province of Las Tunas still remember him.”
Father Paz left Cuba in August 1961, after Fidel Castro's rise to power. He arrived in the then-Diocese of Miami in October 1962 and served as parochial vicar at Epiphany in South Miami (1962-63), St. John the Apostle in Hialeah (1963-64) and Corpus Christi in Miami (1964-69).
He then served as named administrator of St. Ann Mission, Naranja, ministering to the many migrant farmworkers in the area, until 1973, when he was recalled to his home diocese in Spain. Upon returning to Miami in 1975, he was named administrator of Corpus Christi until 1978, when he was named pastor of St. Michael.
After he retired, he would spend summers with his family in Spain and winters in South Florida.
“He enjoyed his retirement a lot,” Deacon Rodicio said. “He traveled a lot. Got to see a lot of different places. He never slowed down.”
“We don’t know what we have lost,” Father Hernando wrote in his tribute, “but we are very grateful to God for having given him to us for so many years.”
The funeral Mass for Father Paz was celebrated in San Fernando Church, Santiago de Compostela. He was buried at the Boisaca cemetery nearby.
