New priest in Florida celebrates first Mass on his wedding anniversary

From Florida comes the story of Miami’s first priest for the Anglican ordinariate: 

It’s a claim very few newly-ordained Catholic priests can make: They celebrated their first Mass on their wedding anniversary.

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.

As Archbishop Thomas Wenski said while ordaining Father Toledo Feb. 15, his is “the exception that proves the rule (of priestly celibacy).”

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.

Father Toledo was received into the Catholic Church Sept. 15, 2013, along with his family and 21 members of his Reformed Episcopal congregation, Rey de Gloria (King of Glory) in Miami Springs. They had been meeting at St. Louis Church in Pinecrest for over a year to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Read the rest. 

Congratulations, padre!  Ad multos annos!