Hialeah Summers Shaped Archbishop's Ministry

Archbishop Thomas Wenski used a May 15 Mass at St. Mary Cathedral to look back on 50 years in the priesthood and to point to Hialeah as one of the places that formed his ministry. In a homily published by the Archdiocese of Miami, Wenski said his early assignments in South Florida included summers in Overtown, Wynwood, Palm Beach County and Hialeah. He said the Hialeah years, in particular, helped prepare him for decades of work with immigrants across the archdiocese. The Archdiocese of Miami said Wenski was ordained in 1976 and has led the archdiocese since 2010. ### What did Wenski say happened in Hialeah? Wenski said in the May 15 homily that he spent three summers in Hialeah — one at Immaculate Conception and two at St. Benedict’s. He said his second summer at St. Benedict coincided with his time as a deacon, and that he served there through the summer and on weekends. (miamiarch.org) He said he celebrated his first Masses at St. Benedict, “one in English and one in Spanish,” with help from Sister Carmen, who prepared the first reading for him. The account appeared in the archdiocesan text of his anniversary homily. ### Why do those parish assignments stand out in his account? (miamiarch.org) Wenski said in the same homily that he learned “Cuban Spanish in the seminary and on Calle Ocho” before those parish assignments deepened that experience. He linked those years to other early ministry posts, including work with a Puerto Rican youth group in Wynwood and driving school buses to pick up migrant children for religion classes in Palm Beach County. (miamiarch.org) The sequence matters because Wenski himself connected those assignments to the kind of ministry he later carried out in South Florida. The Archdiocese of Miami said in a May 14 press release that his 50 years of service included advocacy for immigrants and the poor. (miamiarch.org) ### What do Immaculate Conception and St. Benedict represent in Hialeah? Immaculate Conception, at 4497 West 1st Avenue in Hialeah, was founded as a mission in 1954 and had grown to more than 5,000 families by the 1970s, according to the parish history page on the archdiocesan website. The parish said it developed ministries to meet both the social and spiritual needs of the community. (miamiarch.org) St. Benedict was established in 1973, according to its parish history, and first celebrated Masses at Milam Elementary School and Palm Lakes Elementary School before moving through temporary storefront space and later into a church dedicated in 1980. In a 2023 homily for the parish’s 50th anniversary, Wenski called the church “almost a homecoming” and recalled working there in 1974 as a seminarian and returning on weekends in 1975 after his ordination as a deacon. (miamiarch.org) ### How has Wenski described the link between those years and later ministry? The May 14 archdiocesan announcement described Wenski’s record in terms that match the emphasis of his homily, citing “advocacy for immigrants and the poor” as part of his five decades of service. That statement came from the archdiocese ahead of the Mass of Thanksgiving at the Cathedral of St. Mary. (miamiarch.org) Wenski’s own homily framed those early placements as part of a broader formation in a changing South Florida. He said seminary training did not shelter him from the world and instead helped him engage with it during the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s. ### What was the occasion for these reflections now? (miamiarch.org) The Archdiocese of Miami held a Mass of Thanksgiving for Wenski’s 50th anniversary of priestly ordination on Friday, May 15, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary Cathedral, according to its press release. The archdiocese also said U.S. Representative Carlos A. Giménez, on behalf of Florida’s 28th Congressional District, was to present a Congressional Record tribute recognizing Wenski’s five decades of service. (miamiarch.org) The archdiocesan website listed a livestream item for Wenski’s “50th Anniversary Jubilee of Priestly Ordination” on May 11. The full text of his homily was published on May 15, giving a first-person account of the Hialeah summers he said shaped his ministry. (miamiarch.org) (miamiarch.org)