Fr. Jordi Rivero
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Born June 1, 1951, in Havana, Father Rivero left there with his family at age 9, moving to his great-grandmother's house in Barcelona, Spain. Three years later, the family moved to his grandfather's cattle ranch in central Florida, where he learned to drive a tractor and prepare the land for pasture. A year later, the family settled in Miami's Coconut Grove section, where Father Rivero attended Mass and served as an altar boy at St. Hugh.
He was ordained May 15, 1982, for the Archdiocese of Miami and served at Immaculate Conception in Hialeah, Corpus Christi in Wynwood, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, and as pastor of Holy Family in North Miami from 1999 to 2004. From 1992 to 2006, he served as director of the respect life ministry. In 2004, he was named pastor of St. Raymond and still serves as spiritual director of respect life.
When he knew he wanted to be a priest:
When he left Cuba at the age of 9: “I wasn't sure, so I procrastinated.”
Vocation moment:
In his last year of college at Miami-Dade, he joined a charismatic prayer group: “I really experienced there a new awareness of the Lord and his love and his purposes for us. I had the peace in my heart to make the decision to go into the seminary.”
What he would be doing if he had not become a priest:
“Taking care of the environment.” Before becoming a priest, “I was concerned that we were wrecking our planet. I wanted to do something about it. But then through the prayer group I realized that the root of the problem is that we have drifted away from God. I became aware of Christ's lordship and his calling for us to be a new creation.”
His Navy experience:
After high school, “I was about to be drafted. I had a very low number,” so he simply signed up and put in his four years. “I was never on a ship. I was always in construction work.” After the Navy, he began studying chemical engineering at Miami-Dade College and was accepted to the University of Florida but did not attend. “That's when I decided to change and go into the seminary.”
" The measure of how well the parish is doing is how many people are confessing, because we are all sinners. "
Judging success:
“The measure of how well the parish is doing is how many people are confessing, because we are all sinners.”
What he does on his days off:
“I don't have a day off. I enjoy what I do so much that I don't see my time as being on the job or off the job. I'm just a priest every day.”
Web site:
A Web site he developed 13 years ago www.corazones.org - now has 1 million unique visitors each month, making it one of the top 12,000 of all the Web sites in the world. “I saw right away that this was the wave of the future.”
After high school, Father Jordi Rivero joined the U.S. Navy. His assignment with the Seabees took him to the South Pole. “I was the first Cuban-born person in the South Pole.”
His description of the ideal priest:
“A saint.”
Priestly stereotype that should be discarded:
“That it is a profession or it's a job, or that the people are customers of a franchise or a social club, so then you can demand or expect services without understanding that we are called to be a body where we're all responsible for each other. The laypeople are as much the Church as the priests, and we all have to be a family.”
Travel:
“Once a year I try to go on a pilgrimage. That is my vacation.”
Person he most admires:
“John Paul II and Benedict XVI - I really love them as fathers. At the local level, I really admire tremendously Bishop (Agustín) Román. Having lived with him, (I know) the man is a saint.”
Hobbies:
“If you consider the Web site a hobby. I love to advance the kingdom of God and use whatever resources I have to do it.”
Regrets:
“I have never had any doubt whatsoever of this vocation. Never. This is who I am.”
