By Priscilla Greear - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Archbishop Thomas Wenski will ordain two men to the archdiocesan priesthood this Saturday, May 10, 2025, at St. Mary Cathedral. The ceremony will be livestreamed on the archdiocesan website.

Following are brief profiles and video interviews with the soon-to-be new priests.

DEACON JORGE REYES: FROM ENGINEER TO CHURCH BUILDER

Following a difficult divorce, Deacon Jorge Reyes attended Mass at Nativity Church in Hollywood with his two children in 2005 and heard the surprise call of the Lord.

“It was a very traumatic time in my life. A divorce is a death in the family, very impactful in many ways,” Deacon Reyes said. “I felt God calling me during Mass during the Our Father. I felt God calling me to forgive and that he wanted me as a priest—two things I couldn’t do. I was like ‘He’s got the wrong person. I’m in Mass with two kids.’”

Nevertheless, Deacon Reyes began to pursue God more intentionally and attend retreats. In one experience he met Deacon John Clarke, who was then studying for the permanent diaconate. Deacon Clarke sparked his interest in the diaconate – a good compromise to priesthood. “To this day, I tell him I felt God was talking to me,” recalled Deacon Reyes.

With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Florida Atlantic University, Deacon Reyes worked 30 years designing building systems for TLC Engineering Solutions, with his top priority to support his beloved twins, Jorge Alejandro and Amanda Maria. While working, he eventually started the diaconate in 2012 and earned a master’s in theological studies from St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach to become a permanent deacon at Nativity in 2017. “Being a deacon was so much more than I ever expected. I loved it,” he said of his “weekend warrior” ministry at the church.

Yet he still felt a quiet call to the priesthood and at his one-year diaconate anniversary, his spiritual director, Father Jose Alfaro, pastor of St. John Neumann Church in Miami, asked if he had considered the priesthood.

Later, after his children became young adults, Father Alfaro lovingly asked, “What’s your excuse now?” Father Alfaro invited Deacon Reyes on a Holy Land pilgrimage in October 2022, where Deacon Reyes prayed deeply for vocational direction and helped lead spiritual reflections. “It was really galvanizing, and I said yes, this is what God is telling me,” he said of the decision to become a priest and lead people to prayer.

By July 2023 Deacon Reyes retired from engineering and that August he enrolled in Pope St. John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Mass., geared for second career seminarians. ”It was hard to give up my engineering degrees. But little by little, God allowed me to enjoy the ministry so much more than engineering,” he said.

Deacon Reyes was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and moved with his family to South Florida at age 4. He traces his calling to the priesthood to his childhood, when he attended Nativity School in Hollywood, sports his father's large shirts as robes, and feel felt drawn to his Nativity’s parish crucifix. He discerned a vocation in middle school and graduated from what is now Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School in Hollywood before meeting his future wife in college.

He went through an unwanted divorce after 10 years of marriage, and his ex-wife later requested an annulment. After the annulment, he was free to pursue priesthood.

“We all come from different walks of life. If I would have followed God’s will from the beginning, I would never have the children I have now,” he said. “I think that God allows certain things to happen in our lives, and he uses those things for his will and glory.”

His children embraced his vocation. “They love it. They were both like, ‘We knew it.’ They see me at church always hanging out,” Deacon Reyes said. “When I finally told them my daughter threw me a big party.”

Deacon Reyes has completed pastoral assignments at St. Mary Cathedral in Miami and St. Stephen Parish in Framingham, Mass. As he prepares for his first priestly assignment, he carries a lifelong devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux, on whose feast day he was baptized. In seminary he drew inspiration from Blessed Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest who ministered to the faithful during the Cristero War, a period of religious persecution in Mexico, until his death by firing squad where he proclaimed, “Viva Cristo Rey!” “To me that’s what a priest is,” he said. “It’s not about you; it’s about the ministry that you give to your people.”

He also appreciates Blessed Carlo Acutis for his motto “To the heights,” deep spirituality and love of mountain climbing. “We are called ‘to the heights,’ we are called for something greater, and I see that as a beautiful motto to live by.”

Deacon Reyes will bring to priesthood his engineer’s sense of order and rational thinking. “Being analytical in problem solving, being as rational as possible in certain things is always good,” he said. “Even practical things, I know how air conditioning works! That really helps here in South Florida.”

Deacon Reyes acknowledges a “scary” loss of freedom in having lived comfortably as a bachelor in his own house for 20 years. “I lived life the way I wanted to live it. I’m giving it to God and putting that in the hands of the Church and giving up that responsibility.”

Now Deacon Reyes experiences a new sense of freedom. “I also see it as a great freedom in saying that I’m not the one choosing. It’s God choosing me or choosing my life through the Church,” he said. “I’ve been blessed with so many great things. I believe God is calling me to give those blessings back and give of myself.”

 

DEACON JAKUB BEREZA: ‘LORD SEND YOUR WORKERS TO THE HARVEST’

Deacon Jakub Bereza joined a seven-week catechesis at age 13 at his parish in Torun, Poland, in the Neocatechumenal Way, a Christian initiation movement through which his parents had met during a Poland trip by St. Pope John Paul II. Little did he imagine the global spiritual adventure ahead, growing up with a sense that faith and Santa were for children.

“It was the beginning of a journey that I still continue. I never imagined it would bring me to be Miami to become a priest. In my teenage years, I had my crisis and my doubts, but I came to realize that God was present then,” recalled Deacon Bereza, one of five children. “I saw the faith and the Church can open something that the world cannot.”

Deacon Bereza, 30, found direction in youth ministry amidst conflicts with his family and trials of adolescence. After attending a music-focused elementary and middle school and studying piano and guitar, in high school he sadly gave up music and missed his friends. That summer, he recalled working begrudgingly on home renovations, wishing to be with friends.

In 2009 Deacon Bereza traveled to Prague upon the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, where he was drawn to “live my life for the Gospel.” Afterwards, he joined a vocational discernment group and in 2011 journeyed to World Youth Day in Madrid, where youth were asked to pray, “Lord send your workers to the harvest.”

“At this point, I felt that the Lord was calling me as a worker in the vineyard, in the same way I was working in my house in the construction – renovating the staircase, fixing the fence, making new tiles for the kitchen,” he said. “What I was trying to run away from, in a sense, the Lord used that to call me, and so I stood up in 2011.”

In 2013 Deacon Bereza participated in an international Neocatechumenal Way retreat in Italy with youth aspiring to enter a missionary seminary. By that December, he arrived in Florida at the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Miami in Hialeah. There, he experienced deep communion with the diverse group of seminarians as they participated in weekly prayer services, Mass and monthly retreats. Plus, his remodeling skills came in handy as they labored together on home improvement projects at the seminary, which opened in 2011.

“That retreat in Italy gave me the freedom to go anywhere in the world,” he said. “For all those years, the work was never a burden. I had my challenges, and for me, that was the sign that truly it was the Lord who called me to Miami.”

Deacon Bereza arrived in Miami fearing to study humanities in English and a sense that “communication was not my forte.” Knowing zero Spanish, he was “shocked” to see that “immigrants dominate life here in South Florida.” Yet he embraced academic coursework and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami and a master of divinity from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary. He loved philosophy, which helped him to understand history and ideologies like Nazism and Communism, and was inspired by Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian convert martyred for defying the Nazis. He improved his communication skills through pastoral activities like regular visits to a nursing home in Hialeah.

Deacon Bereza led adult catechesis at St. Boniface Church in Pembroke Pines, from 2015-2019; St. Vincent Church in Margate, in 2018; and Mother of Christ Church in Miami from 2022-23. He recalls his first time leading a catechesis in Spanish. “I managed to put some sentences together, but the Holy Spirit gave me a confidence, a boldness,” he said. “Being involved in the work of evangelization helped me to break the language barrier.”

He experienced baptism by fire in the summers of 2015, 2017 and 2020 one one-week missions with another seminarian, going forth like Christ sent his disciples to proclaim God’s kingdom. On one week in Toledo, Ohio, “I witnessed God was waiting for us there. He took care of us. At times we had a lot to eat; at times we had very little. At times we would sleep in the street. None of that was a burden,” he said. “One day we found ourselves serving food to the homeless. It was amazing to experience the providence of God.”

In a pastoral year at St. Augustine Church in Dallas, Texas, from 2020-2021 Deacon Bereza taught catechesis, helping couples restore marriages and youth overcome struggles like depression and alcohol. “It was a time of noviazgo (engagement), to begin my life truly dedicated to evangelization, to give my life at the service of the Gospel, working with the youth, with the communities,” he said. “I found it very rewarding. I could witness many miracles, youth coming back to life.”

The pastoral year deepened his desire to serve God in a parish, but always with readiness for a missionary assignment. “That is how I envision my priesthood.”

Deacon Bereza accompanied youth to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2023. “You sleep very little but giving my life for the youth brings me joy,” he said. “Pilgrimage is like a privileged moment when they are outside their environment, so it’s easier to speak to them, also for them to open up on their problems.

Deacon Bereza still plays classical guitar and for recreation enjoys soccer, having helped secure the seminarians’ victory in the 2025 Archbishop’s Cup. He completed his transitional diaconate assignment at Our Lady of the Lakes Church in Miami Lakes and now prepares, with nervous but joyful readiness, for the missionary adventure of priesthood, inspired by Pope Francis to boldly announce the Gospel.

“I’m excited. The first duty of the priest is to bear witness to the Gospel, and I find that all these years in seminary I experience how fulfilling it is,” he said, finding consolation for his fears in Scripture. “If I find myself in a parish (feeling) out of control, I’m confident, God is waiting for me there.”