Thomas Wenski
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| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Senior posting | |
| See | Orlando |
| Title | Bishop of Orlando |
| Period in office | November 13, 2004—Present |
| Consecration | September 3, 1997 |
| Predecessor | Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey |
| Successor | incumbent |
| Religious career | |
| Priestly ordination | May 15, 1976 |
| Previous bishoprics | Titular Bishop of Kearney |
| Personal | |
| Date of birth | October 18, 1950 |
| Place of birth | West Palm Beach, FL |
Thomas Gerard Wenski (born 1950) is the current Bishop of Orlando, Florida. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Orlando on July 1, 2003 and succeeded Norbert Dorsey as the fourth Bishop of Orlando on November 13, 2004.
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[edit] Education
Bishop Wenski earned his Associate's Degree from St. John Vianney Minor Seminary in Miami. He earned a B.A. Degree in Philosophy (1972), and Masters of Divinity (1975), from St. Vincent de Paul Seminary, Boynton Beach, and a M.A. from the School of Sociology of Fordham University in New York. He has also taken summer courses at the Catholic University of Lublin (Poland). He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami on May 15, 1976 [1].
[edit] Pastoral work
Bishop Wenski served three years as associate pastor of Corpus Christi Church, a mainly Hispanic parish in Miami. In 1979, after briefly ministering in Haiti, he was assigned to the newly established Haitian Apostolate of the Archdiocese. He was associate director and then director of the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center in Miami from that time until his appointment as a Bishop in 1997. The Haitian Catholic Center, in addition to providing for the pastoral and spiritual needs of the Haitian communities of South Florida, also provided numerous social, educational and legal services to newly arrived Haitian immigrants [2].
Bishop Wenski also served concurrently as pastor of three Haitian mission parishes in the Archdiocese—Notre-Dame d’Haiti in Miami, Divine Mercy in Fort Lauderdale, and St. Joseph in Pompano Beach. In 1994, he was an adjunct professor at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary [3].
He celebrated the weekly mass in English for shut-ins at the local ABC affiliate from 1992-1997. He directed the Archdiocese of Miami Ministry to Non-Hispanic Ethnic Groups.
In January 1996, then Father Wenski was appointed the Archdiocese Director of Catholic Charities, one of the largest Catholic social service agencies in the United States. In this capacity, he helped forge a collaborative relationship with Caritas Cuba, the social service arm of the Catholic Church in Cuba. Since early 1996, he has traveled to Cuba on many occasions on behalf of the Church [4].
[edit] Episcopacy
Pope John-Paul II appointed Bishop Wenski Auxiliary Bishop of Miami on June 24, 1997. He was ordained a bishop on September 3, 1997 in the Miami Arena. Archbishop John C. Favalora served as principal consecrator with Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy and Bishop Agustín Alejo Román Rodríguez serving as co-consecrators [5].
Bishop Wenski serves as chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration and International Policy Committee. He is a member of the Conference’s Secretariat for Church in Latin America and CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.). On behalf of his work on these committees, he has traveled to the Congo and the Great Lakes region of Africa, the Caribbean and Central and South America. In 2001, Governor Jeb Bush appointed him to the Florida Council on Homelessness. He is currently the Episcopal Moderator for Catholic Health Services for the Florida Catholic Conference [6].
On July 1, 2003, Pope John-Paul II appointed Bishop Wenski Coadjutor Bishop of Orlando and he was installed on August 22, 2003. He succeeded Bishop Norbert Dorsey as the fourth Bishop of Orlando on November 13, 2004 [7].
[edit] External Links
| Preceded by (none) |
Auxiliary Bishop of Miami 1997–2003 |
Succeeded by (none) |
| Preceded by Norbert M. Dorsey |
Bishop of Orlando 2004–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
