By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper
This article has been updated.
Father Anthony Acevedo: Born Dec. 15, 1941; ordained March 19, 1973; died Oct. 26, 2016.
MIAMI | “Pure service” — that’s how Father Raul Angulo describes Father Anthony Acevedo, 74, a Colombian priest who ministered in the Archdiocese of Miami since 1979.
Father Acevedo died Oct. 26 at the age of 74. He had been a priest for 43 years, all but six of them in the archdiocese. Throughout many of those years, he served as chaplain at Mercy Hospital, and more recently at St. Anne’s Nursing Center in southwestern Miami-Dade County, where he spent most of his final days.
He died of complications from back surgery, which he underwent in January. He had been bedridden ever since, but his mind was sharp, said Father Angulo, who visited Father Acevedo at Villa Maria Nursing Center just last week.
“He was happy, animated” and receiving physical therapy twice a day, recalled Father Angulo, pastor of Mother of Christ Church in Miami.
Father Acevedo helped out at Mother of Christ after retiring from fulltime ministry in December 2006. He also helped out at Good Shepherd and Our Lady of Lourdes in Kendall.
“You would tell him, ‘We need this,’ and he would already be on his way,” Father Angulo said. “Nothing stopped him. He was tireless.”
Services for Father Acevedo will take place at Mother of Christ, 14141 S.W. 26 St., Miami. The viewing will be Wednesday, Nov. 2, beginning at 7:30 p.m., and the funeral Mass will be Thursday, Nov. 3 at 11 a.m.
Born Dec. 15, 1941 in Galán, a city in the province of Santander, Colombia, Father Acevedo obtained a licentiate in theology from the Universidad de San Buenaventura in Bogotá in 1972, and a degree in liturgy from the Benedictines in Bruges, Belgium, in 1977.
He was ordained March 19, 1973 for the Diocese of Cabimas in Venezuela, where he served as pastor of one parish, San Agustín de Hipona in Punta Gorda, and founded another, in Nueva Cabimas.
He arrived in the Archdiocese of Miami June 25, 1979, and was incardinated (became an archdiocesan priest) Aug. 22, 1985.
From June 1979 to May 1986 he served as associate chaplain at Mercy Hospital in Miami, with residence in St. Kieran Church next door. From 1986 to 1988 he served as a chaplain with the U.S. Army. Upon returning to Miami, he was named parochial vicar at Good Shepherd (1988 to 1990), and at Santa Barbara in Hialeah Gardens (1990-1991).
In May 1991, he returned as chaplain to Mercy, remaining there until 2005, when he became chaplain of St. Anne’s, from where he retired.
Father Acevedo has a brother who is also a priest. Arrangements were being made for him to celebrate his brother’s funeral.
