By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

Update: The funeral Mass will take place at 10 a.m. (not 11 a.m.) in the Ascension Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Doral.

MIAMI | Funeral services will take place Tuesday, Dec. 20, for Maria Galindo, the first woman to serve as vice-chancellor in the Archdiocese of Miami.

Galindo, 89, died the morning of Dec. 16 at her home in Miami. She had retired from the archdiocese in 2008.

“One of my best appointments was to name her vice chancellor,” said Archbishop John C. Favalora, Miami’s archbishop emeritus. “Her whole life was the Church and the Archdiocese of Miami � a great woman of God.”

Archbishop Favalora named Galindo to the post in November 2001. She was the first woman to hold that title in the archdiocese, but she had been working as chief secretary in the Chancellor’s Office for 15 years before that.

She started out as an executive secretary at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Doral, recalled Father Kenneth Whittaker, who directed the archdiocesan cemeteries at the time. Shortly after, she was loaned to the office planning the papal visit of St. John Paul II to Miami in September 1987.

“Margaret Robinson became executive secretary in the papal visit, serving Msgr. (Jude) O’Doherty. Maria was loaned to assist Margaret. Following the papal visit, Msgr. (Gerard) LaCerra asked for her in the chancellor’s office,” said Father Whittaker, now pastor of Our Lady of Mercy in Deerfield Beach.

“I remember that she was a whiz at languages including Latin,” Archbishop Favalora said. “She was probably one of the best Latin translators in the Pastoral Center. Whenever I was hiring someone who had to be fluent in Spanish, I always included her on the screening committee.”

Archbishop Favalora also remembers that she read the papal bull at the episcopal ordination of Bishop John Noonan (now bishop of Orlando). “That was a first for ADOM,” he said.

He also recalled her zealousness in dealing with the confidential nature of much of the chancery’s work. “She guarded the confidential files with her life.”

Msgr. Tomas Marin, pastor of St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center in Coral Gables, was one of the three archdiocesan chancellors who worked with Galindo. He recalled she was fluent in English, Spanish, French and Latin.

He described her as “the most intellectual person I know,” a woman who gave her life to the Church and “cared for the well-being of the Church above all � even her own health. Often I would have to tell her, ‘Maria, I am not leaving until you leave the office.’ She was always there earlier than anyone and often would close the office after everyone had left.” 

On a personal level, he added, “She was very kind to me and often was like an aunt that cared for me when I was sick or needed special attention. I will miss her a lot.”

Msgr. Michael Souckar, now pastor of St. Andrew in Coral Springs, also worked with Galindo when he was archdiocesan chancellor

“I have very fond recollections of working with Maria. She was a woman of great faith who loved the Lord and the Church,” he said. “She had a special love and respect for priests and always tried to support them in their ministry.”

Msgr. Souckar added that Galindo “always was a teacher at heart and I think she took particular delight in teaching me the rules of Spanish grammar. The Archdiocese of Miami has lost a great woman of the Church but also, I pray, gained a heavenly advocate.”

Prior to coming to the archdiocese, Galindo had spent a lifetime teaching, first in her native Cuba, then, after exile, in Texas. In Havana, she taught Latin to seminarians.

Elaine Syfert, who worked for many years in the archdiocesan Family Life Office, recalled on Facebook how “each time a priest would come from Cuba they would come to the Pastoral Center to greet their dear professor Miriam, as they called her.”

Father Santiago Matheu, a Cuban priest who serves as spiritual director of the Spanish-language Cursillo movement in the archdiocese, also commented on Facebook. “For the Church in Cuba, Miriam (as they called her there) was a beloved figure, especially for the church in Reina and the seminary.”

In 2000, Galindo received the highest papal honor the archdiocese can bestow, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross.

The funeral Mass is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Ascension Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Doral.