At 71, still riding a Harley, Archbishop Thomas Wenski is ready for challenges

MIAMI – Looking match and trim, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who has misplaced 55 kilos since January was getting set for one other day on the Archdiocese of Miami. 

About that weight reduction, Wenski stated “…done it by following a low carb, no carb diet and lots of exercise.” 

It is a distinction to his picture of a burly biker. Wenski is well-known for displaying up at occasions on his Harley, “I still ride my motorcycle when I can,” he laments.

Wenski was lately honored with a Mass celebrating his twenty fifth Anniversary as a Bishop. 

He was ordained as a priest 46 years in the past and has spent his profession in Florida, finest recognized for working within the Cuban and Haitian communities. 

And how concerning the future? Wenski instructed CBS4, “I am only 71 years old when I get to 75, the Pope will ask me to submit a letter offering my resignation. If I am in good health and he likes what I am doing, he will give me another year or two more… who knows? Ha, Ha.”

Wenski heads the Archdiocese of Miami, which serves virtually half-a-million Catholics in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. It is a massive job. 

When we requested, “What keeps you going, Wenski was quick to reply, “a lot of espresso within the morning.”

What drives Wenski is much more than coffee, as he puts it, “The Shepard must be looking out for his sheep and shield them.” Backed with a deeply held affection for God and Church, Wenski is a vocal defender of Church coverage and points. 

He weighs in on abortion, the loss of life penalty and scorching burning subject: immigration. 

The archbishop will be combative and has gone nostril to nostril with politicians.

“Certainly, we have a problem with our broken immigration system and that is the problem, the immigrants themselves are not problems, they are our brothers and sisters, they are human beings.”

While the archbishop appreciates the honors, the man who grew up in Lake Worth, who knew as a third grader he needed to be a priest, tends his very giant flock. Not all the time a simple group placing it this fashion, 

“My job is not to make everybody happy or please everybody because when you do that, you wind up pleasing no one, my job is to please the lord above…and I hope I am trying to do that.”