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Feature News | Friday, February 17, 2023

4 Religious honored for 255 combined years of service

They still teach, serve the poor, administer Church entities and evangelize through the media

MIAMI | The four jubilarians honored at the annual World Day for Consecrated Life Mass may have specialized in different areas, but all had one purpose: service to the Church. They included the Archdiocese of Miami’s chancellor, a Catholic media specialist, a teacher and a missionary.

“We say congratulations and thank you to our jubilarians,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who celebrated the annual Mass Feb. 4, 2023 at St. Mary Cathedral. “You have shown us that to be Christian is not a burden, it is a gift that you have shared with confidence and fidelity with all of us.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation to Sister Maria Teresa Meza, marking 50 years as a Daughter of St. Paul, during the Feb. 4, 2023 celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life.

Photographer: Marlene Quaroni

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation to Sister Maria Teresa Meza, marking 50 years as a Daughter of St. Paul, during the Feb. 4, 2023 celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life.

Celebrating 50 years in religious life, Sister Maria Teresa Meza is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, a congregation which specializes in evangelization through the use of media. Sister Maria Teresa is the superior of the local community and the distribution manager of Spanish media at the Pauline Books and Media Store in Sweetwater, in southwest Miami.

“Twenty-five years ago I was the youngest jubilarian and Archbishop John Favalora celebrated the Mass,” said Sister Maria Teresa, a California native. “Now I’m still the youngest to celebrate a jubilee year. I felt a calling since I was 12 years old. I always wanted to help people.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation certificate to Sister Clemencia Fernandez, who is marking 75 years with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, during the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, Feb. 4, 2023 at St. Mary Cathedral.

Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation certificate to Sister Clemencia Fernandez, who is marking 75 years with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, during the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, Feb. 4, 2023 at St. Mary Cathedral.

The oldest jubilarian, Sister Clemencia Fernandez, 92, celebrated 75 years of consecrated life. In 1948, she entered the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the largest female religious community in the Catholic Church, at the Real Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad in Havana, Cuba, where she served poor orphan girls. She worked at Nuestra Señora de la Caridad and Mina Truffin schools in Cuba until the Cuban revolution, when she went to work in Puerto Rico at Hospital Auxilio Mutuo.

In 1971, her work took her to Istanbul, Turkey, as a missionary. She worked at a school for poor Christian girls from the border with Iraq and later, for 26 years, at La Paix Psychiatric and Geriatric Hospital. The hospital dated back to when the Daughters of Charity began caring for Turkish soldiers wounded during the Crimean War, 1853-1856. They nursed the soldiers at first in barracks and later at a hospital they built which eventually specialized in psychiatric care.

In 1998, Sister Clemencia came to live at the Miami convent where she still works in the Daughters of Charity food bank. She has many memories of her long vocation.

“I especially loved working with poor girls in Cuba who had nothing,” she said.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation to Sister Elizabeth Worley, who is marking 60 years with the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, during the Feb. 4, 2023 celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life.

Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation to Sister Elizabeth Worley, who is marking 60 years with the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, during the Feb. 4, 2023 celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life.

Sister Elizabeth Anne Worley joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine in 1963. During her 60 years of service to the Church, Sister Elizabeth has earned the title of multitasker. She is the chancellor for administration and chief operating officer for the Archdiocese of Miami. She held the same office for the Diocese of Orlando from 2007 to 2010. She also was the president and chief executive officer for Catholic Hospice and Mercy Hospital and continues to serve on the Mercy Hospital board of trustees.

She has taught organic chemistry at Barry University, and science and chemistry classes at Catholic elementary, junior and senior high schools, where she was known as “Sister Red” for her red hair.

Sister Elizabeth earned a master’s in business administration, summa cum laude, and a certificate in health care administration from the University of Miami in 1990, where she was class valedictorian. She earned a master’s degree in chemistry from Villanova University in 1978 and a bachelor’s in chemistry, again summa cum laude, from Barry University in 1973. She is on the board of several organizations and holds many honors.

All of her accomplishments once led a blogger to call her the American Church’s most powerful woman. But all she ever aspired to was being a Sister of St. Joseph.

“When I was five years old I knew I was going to be a Sister of St. Joseph,” Sister Elizabeth said. “It’s all I ever wanted to be.”

She also has a passion for music and sings on weekends and special occasions with the choir at St. Mary Cathedral. And, she loved teaching school.

“I nearly died when I was taken out of the classroom,” she said. “I would have been happy teaching chemistry for the rest of my life.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation to Brother Robert Koppes, who is marking 60 years with the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, during the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, Feb. 4, 2023 at St. Mary Cathedral.

Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

Archbishop Thomas Wenski presents a certificate of appreciation to Brother Robert Koppes, who is marking 60 years with the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, during the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, Feb. 4, 2023 at St. Mary Cathedral.

Like Sister Elizabeth, Brother Robert Koppes, an Edmund Rice Christian Brother, spent much of his career teaching. He is celebrating 60 years of consecrated life. After graduating from Iona College, New York, he began a series of teaching assignments that took him to various parts of the country.

“I was a teacher for 42 years and fully enjoyed the work,” he said. “I never had the slightest urge to move up in administration.”

“The classroom was my world,” he added. “I taught American literature and loved it. I was a teacher and never much of a sports coach, although I was a great bus driver and transported many teams to and from games.”

The Christian Brothers, who operate schools worldwide, came to Miami in 1984. They took over the administration at the former Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School. When ACND merged with Msgr. Edward Pace High School in 2017, some of the brothers received permission to stay in Miami, where they teach at St. Mary’s Cathedral School.

Now, Brother Robert, former director of the Christian Brothers volunteer program in Miami, helps coordinate St. Mary Cathedral’s food pantry and helps maintain the parish facilities.

Sister Elizabeth Anne Worley, right, reacts as Archbishop Thomas Wenski recognizes her 60th anniversary in religious life during the Feb. 4, 2023 celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life. At left is Sister Ana Margarita Lanzas of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who serves as directress of the Office for Religious in the Archdiocese of Miami.

Photographer: Marlene Quaroni

Sister Elizabeth Anne Worley, right, reacts as Archbishop Thomas Wenski recognizes her 60th anniversary in religious life during the Feb. 4, 2023 celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life. At left is Sister Ana Margarita Lanzas of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who serves as directress of the Office for Religious in the Archdiocese of Miami.


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