On a recent morning, the Rev. Jim Fetscher noticed he had five missed phone calls from his boss. Curious, Fetscher quickly dialed Archbishop Thomas Wenski.Wenski said he wanted Fetscher, a priest for 28 years at St. Louis Catholic Church in Pinecrest, to pack his belongings and report by the end of September to St. Sebastian parish in Fort Lauderdale.
``I really thought I would be buried out of St. Louis,'' Fetscher later wrote in a letter to parishioners, saying he was ``dumbstruck.'' But he told Wenski he would ``try and hear the Spirit talking.''
The conversation, quick and to the point, was one of dozens of calls the archbishop has made in recent weeks in a sweeping shake-up of the Archdiocese of Miami four months after he was installed as the head of South Florida's Roman Catholics.
Among the moves, Wenski has:
• Reassigned 33 priests and deacons, representing more than a quarter of the region's churches, to far-flung churches and other assignments in what he has described as the first part of an ongoing reorganization of ministers.
• Reopened an Allapattah church that shuttered last year during a 10-percent cutback of the archdiocese's churches, and he has raised the possibility that other churches could also reopen.
• Reconfigured his cabinet, including elevating a Haitian-American priest to oversee Roman Catholic canon law in the church -- the highest position a Haitian American has been given in the archdiocese -- and appointing a nun as the church's chief operating officer, the first woman to have the position in the archdiocese.
``This is a fresh start, a reinvigoration,'' said Wenski, who convened 300 priests last week at the Doral Marriott for a 2 ½-day session to lay out his vision for the archdiocese, which stretches from Deerfield Beach to Key West and includes more than 800,000 South Florida Roman Catholics.
The gathering, the second large-scale meeting Wenski has had with priests since his June installation, was unusual in itself. The last time Wenski's predecessor, John Favalora, convened such a gathering of priests was three years ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the archdiocese.
``I've hit the ground running,'' Wenski said in an interview. ``The economic challenges the archdiocese has faced has put a damper, such as the closing of some parishes and schools, it's had a certain negative effect on morale. We're starting anew.''
It's typical for a new archbishop to put his own stamp on an archdiocese over time.
But several church insiders and observers say the number and scope of changes Wenski has made in just a few months set him apart among American bishops and amount to one of the biggest shake-ups in the archdiocese's recent history.
Unusual, for example, is Wenski's decision regarding St. Robert Bellarmine, the Allapattah church that closed last year along with a dozen others in Miami-Dade and Broward. St. Robert's had its first Mass on Friday evening under its new designation as a mission, meaning it won't have its own staff.
The mission will be administered by Corpus Christi, an Allapattah church whose priests will celebrate Mass at St. Robert's every Sunday.
Wenski said he is ``certainly reviewing'' other closings and that reopenings are ``possible at least in some places.'' He declined to name specific churches. A handful of those that closed last year, including St. Francis Xavier in Overtown and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Opa-locka, have been leased or sold.
One reason for the quick changes, Wenski said, is that he came to South Florida already knowing the church's landscape. Wenski, who attended the St. John Vianney seminary in Westchester and was a parish priest and auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese, is the first native to become archbishop in South Florida. Previously, he was bishop of Orlando.
The changes have garnered mixed reaction among priests and parishioners.
``I'm not looking forward to leaving,'' said the Rev. Paul Vuturo, who celebrated his last Mass at St. Bartholomew in Miramar on Sunday. Starting Friday, Vuturo, who has ministered at St. Bartholomew for 24 years, will become pastor at St. Louis in Pinecrest.
``It's emotional; you're very much wrapped up in different people's lives. You've been through a lot with them. Weddings, births, deaths, funerals,'' said Vuturo, excited to meet his new parishioners.
``Wenski is bringing in fresh blood. I think there were people who felt entitled to their positions, their parishes. This is a good set of moves,'' said Lorn Green, a deacon who serves in the church's prison ministry.
In addition to pastors and deacons, Wenski has rearranged the church's top brass. The Very Rev. Chanel Jeanty, a priest at St. Rose of Lima parish in Miami Shores, is now also the archdiocese's top canon lawyer, the first Haitian to hold the post.
Sister Elizabeth Worley, who was Wenski's chancellor and chief operating officer in Orlando, will move into that same position in Miami beginning Friday.
It's not uncommon for a woman to serve as chancellor, although it is a first for Miami. Worley, who has a master's in business administration from the University of Miami, is a former CEO of Catholic Hospice and former chairwoman of Mercy Hospital.
She is now tasked with reshaping the archdiocese's finances.
In recent years, the archdiocese has closed schools and churches, and has cut back by millions of dollars in other areas.
Wenski has also appointed the archdiocese's two auxiliary bishops, John Noonan and Felipe Estevez, to new positions as vicars general, meaning they have the authority to run the church in Wenski's absence.
Under Favalora, both men had specific assignments to minister to various Catholic groups.
The move will allow Wenski -- who has quickly elevated his position and that of the Miami archdiocese on the national Catholic scene through his work with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on rebuilding efforts in Haiti -- to delegate more administrative responsibilities to the two men as his job gets busier.
Wenski, who speaks fluent Creole, has flown to Haiti several times since the January earthquake.
Wenski said he sees the shake-up of the archdiocese and his work in Haiti as part of the job description.
``One of the orders of bishop is an overseer,'' he said.
``I get to look at things from 30,000 feet above, so I see the bigger picture rather than singular people in their own parishes.''
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