By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | The Cuban Association of the Order of Malta has awarded its highest honor to two archdiocesan priests: Archbishop Thomas Wenski and Msgr. Tomás Marín.

The association’s president, Fernando Garcia Chacon, presented the award after a special Mass for members of the Order celebrated June 27 at St. Mary Cathedral.

Archbishop Wenski received the Grand Cross pro Merito Melitensi given to ecclesiastics “pro piis meritis” — for pious deeds. Msgr. Marín received the same award, the Cross pro Merito Melitensi, also for pious deeds.

Archbishop Wenski is the association’s head chaplain, and Msgr. Marín is one of the group’s conventual chaplains.

“It was given to the archbishop in recognition of his outstanding service to the Order of Malta,” said Juan O’Naghten, the association’s vice-president. “It’s the higher of the two awards, the Cross and the Grand Cross, given to clergy.”

Among his contributions to the association, Archbishop Wenski led the Cuban Knights and Dames of Malta on the first international pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Charity in El Cobre, Cuba, in 2011, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the statue by three fishermen in the Bay of Nipe. Some of the pilgrims had not returned to their native Cuba in 50 years.

“The archbishop has always been highly instrumental in the Knights of Malta in giving aid to Cuba and Haiti,” said O’Naghten. “Annually, we fund about 800,000 meals distributed through parishes in Cuba. We sponsor an annual medical mission to the Dominican Republic where medical personnel attend to 2,000 needy patients.”

Msgr. Marín, who studied medicine before becoming a priest, “has been key to assisting the association in establishing its works in Cuba,” O’Naghten said. “He also has assisted us in finding physician volunteers who will go on the medical missions, and in fact has gone on them himself.”

Previous recipients of the Cross and Grand Cross were Miami Auxiliary Bishop Agustín Román — who served as head chaplain until his death in April 2102 — and Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh, the Irish-born Miami priest who organized the Pedro Pan exodus of 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors from Cuba to the U.S. in the early 1960s.

The Cuban Association of the Order of Malta was established in Havana in 1952, revived in Spain in the 1980s, and reorganized in Miami in 1990. It started with 25 members “dispersed throughout the world,” according to its website, and now has more than 114, most of whom reside in Miami but also in Cuba, Spain, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Members began by helping the poor and sick at a clinic on the grounds of St. John Bosco Church in Little Havana. (St. John Bosco Clinic is now housed on the grounds of Corpus Christi Parish in Miami.) They also work at La Casita de Malta on the grounds of St. John Bosco and at St. Ann Mission in Homestead.

In addition to the medical missions to the Dominican Republic, the Knights and Dames of the Cuban Association support the Foundation San José Obrero (St. Joseph the Worker) in Choluteca, Honduras.

The Order of Malta dates back to the 12th century when Pope Paschal II’s letter in 1113 placed the Order under the protection of the Holy See, formalizing its spiritual and institutional identification.

The Order’s purpose is the sanctification of its members through the defense of the faith and service to the poor. The order has about 13,000 members worldwide. At ceremonies, members wear black robes bearing the Maltese cross.

Corrected July 7, 2015: The original story did not mention that Msgr. Marín also had received an award during the ceremony.