By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | South Florida’s Jesuit community is mourning the loss of one of their own, Father Francisco Pérez-Lerena, who died July 25 at age 92, after 70 years in religious life and just one day short of 59 years as a priest.
“We celebrate his life and commitment to the Church, his faith, and our Belen community,” said a July 26 post on Belen Jesuit Prep’s Facebook page.
Photographer: COURTESY | Belen Jesuit Prep
Jesuit Father Francisco Pérez-Lerena: Born Dec. 27, 1924; ordained for the Society of Jesus July 26, 1958; died July 25, 2017.
The post described Father Pérez-Lerena as a scholar and educator, as well as the founder of Regis House in Little Havana, a center that offers family support, mental health, and substance abuse services to the poor and vulnerable. He served as its director and spiritual counselor from its inception in 1984 until his retirement in April.
“Father Perez-Lerena touched the lives of many by providing a place where the most vulnerable in our society found hope,” said a statement on the Regis House website. “He brought parishioners, former Belen students and other volunteers together to help care for our community’s children.”
The statement added that Father Pérez-Lerena “was an incredibly generous man, a man of purpose and vision, a leader who by leading by example, taught us how to be better, do better. We are all better because he lived.”
In a reflection emailed to Belen students and alumni, the school’s current president, Father Guillermo García-Tuñón, remembered his former tutor, “Fr. Paco,” as “a legend in his own time.”
“He knew the history of our Society better than anyone. Latin, Greek, and several other languages rolled off his tongue with such ease that he would spontaneously break into one and leave you perplexed as to what he was saying,” Father García-Tuñón wrote. “They say that the two most important roles in the Society of Jesus are that of provincial and novice master. Fr. Paco was both.”
Born in Havana, Cuba, Dec. 27, 1924, Father Pérez-Lerena graduated from the Colegio de Belén there in 1944. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1947 and was ordained July 26, 1958.
Exiled from Cuba, he taught at the transplanted Belen Jesuit in Miami from 1961 to 1963, then studied Ignatian Spirituality at the Gregorian University in Rome. From 1964 to 1973, he served as master of novitiates in the Dominican Republic while teaching at the Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. He also served as rector of the Filosofado Diocesano in Santiago de los Caballeros from 1968 to 1974; as provincial of the Jesuit Antilles Province from 1974 to 1979; and simultaneously as president of the Conferencia Dominicana de Religiosos (the Dominican Republic’s Conference of Religious).
He returned to Belen Jesuit in Miami in 1980 and served as the school’s rector/president until 1983. From 1980 to 1983, and again from 2003 to 2009, he served as the Jesuit community’s local superior.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski will celebrate the funeral Mass Wednesday, Aug. 2, at 11 a.m. at the Saladrigas Gallery on the campus of Belen Jesuit, 500 S.W. 127 Ave., Miami. A wake will take place in the same gallery Tuesday, Aug. 1, from 7 to 10 p.m.
Donations in Father Pérez-Lerena's memory may be made to Regis House, 2010 N.W. Seventh St., Miami, FL 33125.
This article has been updated to include the quotes from Father Guillermo García-Tuñón.
