# Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami

The Archdiocese of Miami (Latin: Archidioecesis Miamiensis, Spanish: Arquidiócesis de Miami, Haitian Creole: Achidyosèz Miami) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in South Florida in the United States. It is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami, which covers all of Florida. The Archdiocese of Miami contains the Florida counties Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe.
Formed in 1958, the archdiocese added many Cuban members following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. It was involved in Operation Pedro Pan, a clandestine operation to bring Cuban children to South Florida. Starting in the late 1990s or early 2000s it has faced a sexual abuse scandal in which at least 90 minors made claims of sexual abuse as of 2003.
The archdiocese operates two hospitals and other healthcare facilities. It runs 60 elementary or middle schools, 13 high schools, and two universities. It celebrates mass in at least a dozen languages.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary is the mother church of the archdiocese. As of 2023, the archbishop of Miami is Thomas Wenski.

## Structure

As of 2021, the Catholic population in the archdiocese was approximately 824,000, served by 271 priests in 102 parishes.
The archdiocese celebrates mass in at least a dozen languages. It operates two schools for the disabled, 60 elementary/middle schools, 13 high schools, two universities and two seminaries. The archdiocese operates Radio, print, and television media outlets.
The archdiocese operates two hospitals, nine health care centers, three homes for the aged, and two cemeteries. The archdiocesan charities include homeless shelters, legal services for the poor, an HIV/AIDS ministry, and the Missionaries of Charity and Society of Saint Vincent de Paul ministries to the poor. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami is a separate non-profit organization operated by the archdiocese.

## History
### Background

The first Catholics in Eastern Florida were a group of Spanish Jesuits who founded a mission in 1566 on Upper Matecumbe Key in the Florida Keys. After several years of disease and turbulent relations with the Native American inhabitants, the missionaries returned to Spain.
By 1606, Florida was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Havana in Cuba. After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Spain ceded all of Florida to Great Britain for the return of Cuba. Given the antagonism of Protestant Great Britain to Catholicism, the majority of the Catholic population in Florida fled to Cuba. After the American Revolution, Spain regained control of Florida in 1784. In 1793, the Vatican changed the jurisdiction for Florida Catholics from Havana to the Apostolic Vicariate of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, based in New Orleans. In the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States, which established the Florida Territory in 1821.
In 1825, Pope Leo XII erected the Vicariate of Alabama and Florida, which included all of Florida, based in Mobile, Alabama. In 1858, Pius IX moved Florida into a new Apostolic Vicariate of Florida and named Bishop Augustin Verot as vicar apostolic. In 1870, Pius IX elevated the Vicariate of Florida into the Diocese of St. Augustine and named Vérot as its first bishop. The new diocese covered all of Florida except for the Florida Panhandle region.
In 1850, Bishop Francis X. Gartland of Savannah sent Reverend John F. Kirby to Key West to tend to a growing Catholic community there. He constructed Saint Mary Star of the Sea Church in Key West in 1852. Gesù Parish in Miami, founded in 1896, was the first parish founded in South Florida outside of the Florida Keys. The first Catholic church in Homestead was Sacred Heart, constructed in 1917.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, St. Augustine bishop Joseph Hurley purchased land throughout South Florida in anticipation of a future population boom. Dozens of Catholic churches, schools and cemeteries were later built on land purchased by Hurley.

### Establishment and early history

Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Miami on October 7, 1958, naming Auxiliary Bishop Coleman Carroll from the Diocese of Pittsburgh as the first bishop of Miami. On its formation, the new diocese included the 16 southern counties in Florida, with a Catholic population of approximately 200,000.
The Cuban Revolution in 1959 triggered a wave of Cuban immigration to South Florida, increasing the Catholic population in the region. Carroll established the Catholic Welfare Bureau to assist these immigrants. Between 1960 and 1962, the bureau ran a clandestine operation, Operation Pedro Pan, to bring 14,000 Cuban children to South Florida.
On March 2, 1968, Pope Paul VI erected the Dioceses of St. Petersburg and Orlando, taking eight counties from the Diocese of Miami. At the same time, the pope elevated the Diocese of Miami to the Archdiocese of Miami, naming Carroll as archbishop.
During the American Civil Rights Movement of the 60's, Carroll was influential in stemming threatened racial riots in Miami. He desegregated the Catholic schools in the archdiocese ten years before any other diocese in Florida. Carroll was a co-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."

### Later history

After Carroll died 1977, Paul VI named Bishop Edward McCarthy as Miami's archbishop. McCarthy oversaw the construction in Miami Shores of the Pastoral Center - Florida Catholic 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 to Cuban refugees during the Mariel Boat Lift. The following year, he supported the rights of Haitian immigrants who were detained by the US Immigration Service under the Wet Foot, Dry Foot policy. Responding to the needs of this new immigration, McCarthy opened the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center in Miami. McCarthy retired in 1994.
On November 3, 1994, Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop John C. Favalora of St. Petersburg as the third archbishop of Miami. During his tenure, Favalora built two new high schools and nine grade schools. Favalora also initiated Vision 2000, a five-year fundraising campaign to support Catholic education and outreach institutions in the archdiocese. Vision 2000 raised $90 million.
On July 11, 2003, John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami to lead the Diocese of Orlando. With substantial immigration of predominantly Catholic South and Central Americans to the South Florida area, the Catholic population reached 25% of the total population of South Florida. Waves of immigrants from other parts of the world, including Asia and Africa, led to priests celebrating mass in over a dozen different languages.
In 2009, the Vatican named Reverend Fernando Isern, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Kendall, as the next bishop of the Diocese of Pueblo. He was the 11th archdiocesan priest to become bishop since 1958.
On April 20, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Favarola's resignation and appointed Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando as his successor. On June 1, 2010, Wenski was installed as the fourth archbishop of Miami at the Cathedral of Saint Mary. Wenski in June 2021 praised the archdiocesan community for its support of victims of the collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium building in Surfside.
In February 2023, the archdiocese offered refuge to Nicaraguan priests and seminarians who had been exiled by the Government of Nicaragua. As of November 2024, Wenski is the current archbishop

#### Sexual abuse
## Bishops
### Archbishops of Miami

* Coleman Carroll (1958–1977), elevated to Archbishop in 1968
* Edward Anthony McCarthy (1977–1994)
* John Favalora (1994–2010)
* Thomas Wenski (2010–present)

### Auxiliary bishops

* René Gracida (1968–1975), appointed Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee and later Bishop of Corpus Christi
* John Nevins (1979–1984), appointed Bishop of Venice
* Agustin Roman (1979–2013)
* Norbert Dorsey (1986–1990), appointed Bishop of Orlando
* Gilberto Fernandez (1997–2002)
* Thomas Wenski (1997–2003), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Orlando and Archbishop of Miami
* Felipe Estévez (2004–2011), appointed Bishop of Saint Augustine
* John Noonan (2005–2010), appointed Bishop of Orlando
* John Fitzpatrick (1968–1971), appointed Bishop of Brownsville
* Peter Baldacchino (2014–2019), appointed Bishop of Las Cruces
* Enrique Esteban Delgado (2017–present)

### Other priests of the diocese who became bishops

* Ambrose De Paoli, appointed Apostolic Nuncio and Titular Archbishop in 1983
* Fernando Isern, appointed Bishop of Pueblo in 2009
* Robert Nugent Lynch, appointed Bishop of Saint Petersburg in 1995

## Education
### Schools

As of 2024, the Archdiocese of Miami had an enrollment of 35,000 students in 68 schools and four dedicated pre-schools.
| High school | Opened | District | City |
| Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School | 1998 | The Hammocks | Unincorporated area |
| Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School | 1998 | | Southwest Ranches |
| Belen Jesuit Preparatory School | 1854 | Tamiami | Miami |
| Cardinal Gibbons High School | 1961 | | Fort Lauderdale |
| Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart | 1961 | Coconut Grove | Miami |
| Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School | 1960 | | Hollywood |
| Christopher Columbus High School | 1958 | Westchester | Unincorporated area |
| Immaculata-LaSalle High School | 1958 | Coconut Grove | Miami |
| Monsignor Edward Pace High School | 1961 | | Miami Gardens |
| Our Lady of Lourdes Academy | 1963 | | Ponce-Davis |
| St. Brendan High School | 1975 | Westchester | Unincorporated area |
| St. Thomas Aquinas High School | 1936 | | Fort Lauderdale |

### Religious education

The archdiocese offers religious education classes for children who attend public or private schools. In 1997, Favalora started requiring all volunteers, employees, teachers and priests working with children to be fingerprinted and undergo a background check. The archdiocese also offers adult religious education classes.

### Universities

The Archdiocese of Miami administers St. Thomas University in Miami. In 1961, a group of Augustinian priests arrived in Miami after being expelled from Cuba after the Cuban Revolution. They founded Biscayne College, which the archdiocese took over in 1988 and renamed as St. Thomas University.
St. Thomas offers Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Master's degree, Master of Business Administration, M.Acc., Doctor of Education, and Doctor of Philosophy programs. It offers several joint degree programs and an accelerated B.A./J.D. as well. The School of Law at St. Thomas was fully accredited by the American Bar Association in February 1995, and offers the Juris Doctor degree (J.D.) as well as the Masters of Law (LL.M) degrees.
In 1940, the Dominican sisters, along with Bishop Patrick Berry of St. Augustine, founded Barry College for women in Miami Shores. It became Barry University in 1981

### Seminaries

St. John Vianney College Seminary and Graduate School in Miami is sponsored by the archdiocese. It offers a two-year pre-theology program for seminarians with a bachelor's degree. St. John Vianney also offers a Bachelor of Philosophy program for seminarians lacking a college degree. It also provides language immersion programs.
St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach is sponsored by all the Florida dioceses. It offers a master's degree in Theology and Theological Studies and a First Professional Degree in Divinity and Ministry.
Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary in Hialeah is a diocesan seminary whose graduates are assigned by the archbishop to parish or missionary assignments. Its seminarians attend classes at St. John Vianney or St. Vincent de Paul.

## Catholic Charities of Miami

Catholic Charities of Miami is a separate non-profit organization operated by the Archdiocese of Miami. It is part of a national network of Catholic Charities operated in each diocese. In 2007, Catholic Charities of Miami claimed to be the largest nongovernmental provider of services to the needy in South Florida.
Catholic Charities of Miami was founded in 1931 during the Great Depression with four Miami-area pastors and lay members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. As of 2024, Catholic Charities services include:
* Alcohol and substance abuse services
* child development services
* Behavioral health services
* Elderly Services
* Homeless prevention and rapid re-housing
* Housing services
* immigrant and refugee services

## Health

Catholic Health Services operates 26 facilities in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties for the archdiocese. These included HCA Florida Mercy Hospital in Miami and Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale.
Catholic Hospice is a partnership between the archdiocese and Mercy Hospital. It provides end of life care to terminally ill patients and their families in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

## Catholic Cemeteries

Catholic Cemeteries operates two cemeteries:
* Our Lady of Mercy – Miami-Dade County
* Our Lady Queen of Heaven – Broward County

## Outreach
### Lay movements and ministries

Lay men and women operate over 60 movements and ministries for the archdiocese. As of 2024, these ministries included:
* Airport Ministry
* Apostleship of the Sea
* Ascending Life
* Catholic Campus Ministry
* Charismatic Renewal
* Courage International
* Miami Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women
* Lay Groups
* Marian movements
* Marian Center for the disabled
* Mission Office
* Office of Ecumenical and Inter-faith Relations
* Office of Family Life
* Prison ministry
* Respect Life Office
* Youth Ministry
* Young Adult Ministry
The archdiocese also helps support what it terms as crisis pregnancy centers, along with a post-abortion counseling program through Project Rachel, an anti-abortion initiative of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

### Retreats

Morning Star Renewal Center in Pinecrest is a retreat house operated by lay people for the archdiocese. The center provides group retreats and offers spiritual formation activities.

### Charities

* Camillus House
* HIV/AIDS shelter
* Missionaries of Charity of Mother Theresa
* Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
* Social advocacy groups
The Archdiocese promotes support for South Florida charities through an annual "ABCD" - Archbishop’s Charities and Development Drive - campaign.

## Media
### PAX Catholic Communications

Radio Paz is a Spanish-language AM station founded in 1990. It is broadcast on WACC 830 AM.

### Florida Catholic

The archdiocese publishes a localized version of the Florida Catholic newspaper every two weeks. Each issue contains a message from the archbishop, spiritual reflections on the scripture readings for the week, news reporting on various events happening around the archdiocese and the world, and a digest of upcoming events featured around the archdiocese among other features. Florida Catholic is also published online.
Florida Catholic produced a series entitled "Building the City of God", which profiles the personal side of priests. It won a Communicator Award of Distinction for print media "Marketing/Promotion/Campaign".

### Content provision

The archdiocese produces English and Spanish masses to air on local television stations, along with content for the Internet and video. One video, entitled "Walking in the Light of Christ," received a Videographer Award of Excellence in 2008 from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.