By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Deacon Pedro Toledo sings the Gloria during the Mass of ordination alongside his wife, Betsy, daughter Eilyn, and her husband, Victor Molina.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Deacon Pedro Toledo stands after being called up for ordination by Archbishop Thomas Wenski.
But that is just what Father Pedro Toledo did Feb. 16 at St. Louis Church in Pinecrest, celebrating his first Mass on his 34th wedding anniversary, with his wife, Betsy, daughters Lina and Eilyn, sons-in-law Ruben and Victor, and 17-month-old granddaughter Olivia in attendance. The only one missing was his son Andres, who is away at college.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Father Pedro Toledo kisses his wife, Betsy, during the Sign of Peace.
The 56-year-old Venezuelan became the first former Anglican priest in the Archdiocese of Miami to be ordained Roman Catholic under the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The ordinariate was created by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 to allow members of the Anglican community to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining their liturgical traditions.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Father Pedro Toledo poses with Archbishop Thomas Wenski after his ordination.
�We were letting them use our chapel Sunday afternoons for their Episcopal services,� said Father Paul Vuturo, pastor of St. Louis.
Once they decided to join the Catholic Church, they simply joined the Spanish-speaking community at St. Louis. The Anglicans have an English-language rite that differs from the Roman Catholic one, Father Vuturo explained, but there is no separate rite in Spanish.
�St. Louis has become our mother,� said Father Toledo, who was ordained a deacon Jan. 18 by Bishop Fernando Isern, bishop emeritus of Pueblo, Colo., and pastor of St. Kieran Parish in Miami.
Father Toledo�s conversion to Catholicism is really a return to the faith he was raised in until age 10. That�s when his parents became Pentecostal Evangelicals. He continued along that path and came to the U.S. in 1991 to study for the ministry. After obtained his master of divinity, he headed a Christian Reformed Church in Orlando from 1997 to 2002. In 2003, he moved to Miami to start a Hispanic Christian Reformed Church. In 2008, he joined the Anglican Church.
While acknowledging �the contribution made by each tradition to the maturity of my Christian faith,� he said that finding �inconsistencies and problems� in the Protestant and Evangelical churches prompted him to �review more deeply my beliefs.�
He began reading Church Fathers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. He also got to know St. Louis Church while attending retreats next door, at what was then known as the Dominican Retreat House and is now MorningStar Renewal Center.
In fact, he and his family began attending Mass at St. Louis on days when their church had no services, such as Holy Thursday and Christmas Eve.
�Liturgy played a big role in my movement from the Reformed Church to the Anglican. Then liturgy and ecclesiology made me move to the Catholic Church,� Father Toledo explained. After that it was simply a matter of asking himself: �This is what I believe. What am I doing outside the Church?�
He would have been content to simply be a layman, he said, but his congregation urged him to explore the ordinariate.
�Because of them, I�m in the priesthood,� Father Toledo said.
FYI
While Father Pedro Toledo is the first former Anglican priest to join the Catholic Church under the ordinariate, two others were ordained and became priests of the archdiocese before the ordinariate was created:
While Father Pedro Toledo is the first former Anglican priest to join the Catholic Church under the ordinariate, two others were ordained and became priests of the archdiocese before the ordinariate was created:
- Father William Mu�iz, now retired but still active as a hospital chaplain in Broward County; and
- Father Walter Mitchell, who served at St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Edward parishes in Pembroke Pines and died in September 2012.
His conversion is all the more rare, he added, because he is Hispanic. �In the Latin world, it�s common to see Catholics become Protestant or Evangelical. But it�s rare or even unheard of for a Protestant � or even a pastor � to become Catholic.�
There are three Anglican ordinariates worldwide: In the U.S. and Canada, in England and Wales, and in Australia. Each is headed by a former Anglican bishop who, because he is married, cannot be ordained a bishop in the Catholic Church � and therefore has to rely on the local Roman Catholic bishop to ordain priests. However, the heads of ordinariates function much as bishops do. They carry the title of monsignor and are called ordinaries, Father Vuturo said.
Father Toledo�s ordinary is Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, who could not be present at the ordination because he was in Rome, along with his counterparts, meeting with Pope Francis.
�It�s like a different diocese,� explained Father Vuturo. Father Toledo �is not part of our diocese� and does not receive an assignment from Archbishop Wenski.
In fact, Father Toledo�s community has chosen the name St. Augustine of Hippo. Nevertheless, he said, �Every priest from the ordinariate is living within a diocese of the Catholic Church. We have to work together. I will assist Father Paul with the church, saying Mass or wherever he needs me.�
There are three Anglican ordinariates worldwide: In the U.S. and Canada, in England and Wales, and in Australia. Each is headed by a former Anglican bishop who, because he is married, cannot be ordained a bishop in the Catholic Church � and therefore has to rely on the local Roman Catholic bishop to ordain priests. However, the heads of ordinariates function much as bishops do. They carry the title of monsignor and are called ordinaries, Father Vuturo said.
Father Toledo�s ordinary is Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, who could not be present at the ordination because he was in Rome, along with his counterparts, meeting with Pope Francis.
�It�s like a different diocese,� explained Father Vuturo. Father Toledo �is not part of our diocese� and does not receive an assignment from Archbishop Wenski.
In fact, Father Toledo�s community has chosen the name St. Augustine of Hippo. Nevertheless, he said, �Every priest from the ordinariate is living within a diocese of the Catholic Church. We have to work together. I will assist Father Paul with the church, saying Mass or wherever he needs me.�
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