Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami - History

History

Before 1952, the entire State of Florida was under the jurisdiction of one diocese, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Augustine. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Saint Augustine archbishop Joseph Patrick Hurley purchased land throughout South Florida in anticipation of a future population boom. Today, these once remote areas are thriving cities. Dozens of Catholic churches, schools and cemeteries built on the land purchased by Hurley dot these areas.

The Diocese of Miami was created on October 7, 1958, with Coleman Carroll installed as bishop. The diocese included the 16 southern counties in Florida, with a Catholic population of 200,000. It encompassed one half of the area of the state. Less than a year after the creation of the diocese, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. This set off a mass exodus of Cuban exiles to South Florida. The Catholic Welfare Bureau, created by Carroll, played a significant part in helping these waves of Cuban immigrants. Between 1960 and 1962, 14,000 Cuban children were sent to the United States. Operation Pedro Pan, created by Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh, placed them with friends, relatives or the Catholic Welfare Bureau. In 1996, the Catholic Welfare Bureau changed its name to Catholic Charities. Today it claims to be the largest non-governmental provider of social services in South Florida. It served over 17,000 families in the tri-county area of Broward, Dade and Monroe counties in 2006.

Due to an increased population, the diocese was divided in 1968. Eight counties became part of the Diocese of St. Petersburg and the new Diocese of Orlando. Miami was made an archdiocese by Pope Paul VI, and was named Metropolitan See for all of Florida. Carroll became an archbishop on March 2, 1968. He participated in the church reforms of Vatican II as one of the Council Fathers. During the civil rights struggles of the 60's, Carroll was influential in stemming threatened racial riots in Miami and in desegregating Catholic schools roughly 10 years before the rest of the State. He became a founder of the Community Relations Board which worked to "quell waves of misunderstanding, discrimination and discontent which often threatened to flood South Florida's multi-ethnic community."

Upon the death of Carroll on July 26, 1977, Bishop Edward Anthony McCarthy was appointed as Miami's archbishop. McCarthy oversaw the construction of the Pastoral Center for the archdiocese and restructured most senior operational divisions. He established the Office of Lay Ecclesial Ministry, the Office of Evangelization and the Permanent Diaconate program. In 1980, he offered support and assistance during the Mariel Boat Lift. The following year, he supported the rights of Haitian immigrants who were detained under the Wet Foot, Dry Foot policy. Responding to the needs of this new immigration, he opened the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center. McCarthy retired in 1994 at the required age of 75.

On November 3, 1994, Pope John Paul II appointed John C. Favalora as the third archbishop of Miami. During his tenure, he built two new high schools and nine grade schools. Favalora also initiated the Vision 2000 campaign, a five-year fundraising campaign that created an endowment fund to support Catholic education and outreach institutions in the archdiocese. The effort raised $90 million (USD). On July 11, 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed Miami auxiliary bishop Thomas Gerard Wenski to lead the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando. With substantial immigration of predominantly Catholic South and Central Americans to the South Florida area, the Catholic population there is 25% of the total population. Waves of immigrants from other parts of the world, including Asian and African countries, have led to Mass being celebrated in over a dozen different languages in parishes throughout the archdiocese.

In 2009, Father Fernando Isern, of Our Lady of Lourdes, Kendall, was named the next bishop of Pueblo. He is the 11th priest from the archdiocese to be so designated since its creation in 1958.

On April 20, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Favalora eight months early and appointed Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando as his successor. On June 1, 2010, Archbishop Wenski was installed as the fourth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Miami at the Cathedral of Saint Mary.