Bishop John Ricard | Source: Divine Word Radio

On February 15, 2011, the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee reported that Bishop John Ricard had submitted his resignation to the Holy Father for medical reasons. You may recall, Bishop Ricard suffered a pretty serious stroke on December 22, 2009. According to diocesan officials, the bishop underwent multiple surgeries and intense physical rehabilitation in the weeks and months following his stroke.

Shortly after returning to a limited work schedule in January 2010, Ricard was rehospitalized after collapsing while celebrating a funeral Mass.

Truthfully, those of us throughout the state have been wondering when the bishop was going to submit his resignation to Pope Benedict XI. Despite our prayers and wishes for him to remain as the bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, we have been expecting this for some time.

With this announcement, there are two bishops within the state that have submitted resignations to the Holy Father. Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of Saint Augustine submitted his resignation upon turning 75 last September.

Along with the appointment of Archbishop Thomas Wenski as Metropolitan Archbishop of Miami and Bishop John Noonan as Bishop of Orlando, four out of the seven dioceses in the state have experienced leadership transitions in the last year. However, it doesn’t end there.

Come May, six of the seven dioceses throughout the state will have appointed new Vocations Directors within the span of two years.

• During the summer of 2009, Bishop Galeone appointed Fr. Remek Blaszkowski as Director of Vocations and Fr. Daivd Ruchiniski as Assistant Director of Vocations for the Diocese of St. Augustine.
• In July 2010, Father Len Plazewski submitted his resignation as Vocations Director of the Diocese of St. Petersburg after serving in that position for twelve and a half years. Bishop Robert Lynch has appointed Fr. John Blum as Director of Vocations and Fr. Carl Melchior as Assistant Director of Vocations.
• In August 2010, Bishop John Ricard appointed Fr. Will Ganci as Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.
• In September 2010, Archbishop Thomas Wenski appointed Fr. David Zirilli as Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Miami. At the same time, Wenski also appointed the former vocations director, Fr. Roberto Garza, as Rector/President of St. John Vianney College Seminary.
• In November 2010, Bishop Frank Dewane appointed Father Cory Mayer as Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Venice in Florida.

Now comes the latest appointment, a new vocations director for the Diocese of Orlando. It is expected that, in the next few weeks, Bishop John Noonan will appoint Fr. Jorge Torres as the new Director of Vocations for the Orlando diocese, succeeding Fr. Miguel Gonzalez. The appointment is not expected to be immediate, however. It is anticipated that Fr. Miguel will remain in the vocations office through May, when he will officially takeover responsibilities as Parochial Administrator of St. John Vianney Catholic Church.

Those of us within the Diocese of Orlando have come to cherish Fr. Miguel and all he has done to nurture vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Throughout the last six years, he has devoted all his time and effort to those young men and women who have responded to the Lord’s invitation to serve.

Being one of his “hijos”—sons—I have been given the privileged to have Fr. Miguel’s help in discovering my own vocation. I thank him tremendously for all the support he has shown me throughout the last couple of years. He will forever be a mentor, friend, and father-figure in my life. That being said, I could not think of a better choice for the new vocations director for the Orlando diocese.

Fr. Jorge Torres currently serves as Parochial Vicar of Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Oviedo. That parish, one of the newest in Orlando, is currently in the middle of a building project. The ministries within the parish also serve the UCF Catholic community. Therefore, it is important to have two priests assigned there. So, expect some moves within the Diocese of Orlando over the next few months to accommodate these changes.

Stay tuned…more as it happens.

This morning, I would like to begin by thanking all of you who are loyal readers of this small effort on my part to promote vocations in the Catholic Church by sharing my own journey of discernment. I would also like to welcome those who may be visiting for the first time.

As many of you read on the Whispers of the Spirit blog on Thursday, over the last several months it has become increasingly difficult to keep up two blogs when you are pretty much working on them yourself. The only reasonable thing to do would be to stop posting blogs on one site and focus on the site where I post more articles. Therefore, Whispers of the Spirit will no longer be updated with new information, effective immediately. The work of promoting vocations will continue on this site.

There will be some changes to my discernment blog in the next few months. In fact, if you look at the top of your page now, you will already see something that has transferred from Whispers of the Spirit–“US Vocations Offices”. Information regarding all of the Vocations Offices from all of the Dioceses and Archdiocese in the United States are on that page. Check it out. More changes are on the way.

Thank you, again, for your continued prayers and support! A person’s journey in seminary is not the easiest thing in the world, as I am sure you all can tell from my posts here over the last couple of years. However, knowing that there are people praying for you nonstop is a reassuring feeling; it lets me know that the Lord is with me and will help me persevere in all the struggles that may come my way.

Diocese of Orlando:

Archdiocese of Miami: 305-762-1137

Diocese of St. Petersburg: 727-345-3452

Diocese of Palm Beach: 561-775-9552

Diocese of Venice: 941-484-9543

Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee: 850-435-3552

Diocese of St. Augustine: 904-262-3200, ext. 101

***Note: If you are the bulletin editor at a parish in the Diocese of Orlando, please email me (tom@thomaspringle.com) for additional bulletin inserts promoting Vocations Awareness Weekend.***