'Back to the Promised Land'

Fotógrafo: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

St. Cecilia parishioners accompany the image of their patroness into the church.

HIALEAH - A sign of hope, a miracle of the Virgin, an anniversary gift: the re-opening of their parish meant all this and more to the community of St. Cecilia.

Hundreds filled the small but beautiful church on Dec. 18 to celebrate with Archbishop Thomas Wenski something that many had been praying for since November 2009, when the parish was forced, for economic reasons, to merge with St. John the Apostle, another Catholic church located few blocks south in Hialeah.

"It's like the exodus and the return to the Promised Land," said Sister Maria Teresa Flores, of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, who for years worked in the parish.

With them was Msgr. Emiliano Ordax, who was pastor of St. Cecilia for 27 years. He built the church and the parish hall and unfailingly welcomed all who came asking for financial aid.

St. Cecilia is located in an area dominated by apartments, the vast majority of whose residents are Cuban refugees -- either senior citizens or new arrivals to the U.S. Many lack a means of transportation and attend the church on foot.

Although his health is fragile, Msgr. Ordax said he felt "very happy, because this has buoyed the hopes of the faithful."

Fotógrafo: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Father Emanuele De Nigris, newly-appointed pastor of St. Cecilia, takes part in the Mass.

Fotógrafo: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

The statue of St. Cecilia is prominently displayed on the altar.

 "I could never think that a Catholic church would shut down while two Protestant churches open," said Carmen Gonzalez-Rubio, who was a parishioner at St. Cecilia almost since the time when the parish first opened its doors.

Although now she is a parishioner at St. Benedict, also in Hialeah, she said she attended the Mass of reopening "first because my name is Carmen Cecilia. Second, because this was my first church."

At that time, 40 years ago, she was a young, recently-widowed mother of three daughters. Gonzalez-Rubio said the most moving moment for her was seeing the tabernacle once again in its place, in the small chapel next to the altar.

After her husband died, she said, "That was my refuge. I came here to cry."

Maria and George Rodriguez were married in St. Cecilia almost exactly 25 years ago, on Dec. 19.

"It was like a gift of the Holy Spirit for the re-opening of the church where we got married to take place on the eve of our anniversary. It is very special," said Maria, who along with her husband works at Msgr. Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens.

"I'm very excited. I never thought it would open again," said Magda Gonzalez, who was a parishioner of St. Cecilia for nearly 30 years, until the church closed. Since then she has been working in catechesis at St. John the Apostle.

"That's Mary, who got on Jesus' case: Re-open Santa Cecilia," said Gonzalez. "I'm sure of it."

Pastors from other Hialeah parishes also were in attendance at the Mass of reopening, including Msgr. Pedro Luis Perez, who retired a few years ago as pastor of San Lazaro and was pastor of St. Cecilia before that.

Before the beginning of the Mass, the faithful came in procession bearing the image of their patron saint from St. John the Apostle, where it had been housed. St. John's pastor, Msgr. Oscar Casta�eda, led the procession, which he said also was very emotional for him.

Fotógrafo: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Archbishop Thomas Wenski put the consecrated hosts in the tabernacle at the end of the Mass.

"I feel happy because I was in the first procession when they brought the statue of St. Cecilia by helicopter in 1971," said Msgr. Castaneda, who was a teenager at the time.

He also played the organ at Mass, said his mother, Maria Esther Casta�eda, who attended the reopening Mass with her husband, Oscar. "This was the first church we came to" after arriving from Cuba in 1968, he said.

"I never thought I would be in the back for the return of the image or the reopening of the parish," Msgr. Casta�eda said.

He added that all the images, along with the tabernacle, which had been moved to St. John are now back at St. Cecilia.

In January of this year, the archdiocese decided to stop trying to sell the building and grounds, located at 1040 W. 29 St., and began to prepare the building for worship. In April of this year, precisely on Easter Sunday, Msgr. Castaneda celebrated the first Mass at St. Cecilia. He continued to celebrate Mass once a month until October, when the new pastor, Father Emanuele De Nigris, arrived and began celebrating Mass every Sunday.

Father De Nigris is a native of Italy but studied at the Neocatechumenal Way's Redemptoris Mater seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. He speaks English and Spanish in addition to Italian, and will be assisted by a priest who is a native of Brazil and also speaks Spanish.

Aside from being pastor, Father De Nigris will be the new rector of the Redemptoris Mater seminary which just opened in Miami. Its 12 seminarians will attend classes at St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami and St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, but their spiritual formation will be carried out according to the model of the Neocatechumenal Way. The seminarians will live at St. Cecilia.