Florida Catholic | Obituary: Father Jorge Sardiña

Obituary

‘He was more than a friend’

Belen Jesuit Prep community mourns the death of Father Jorge Sardiña.

YÉDICA LEAL | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 02.22.08

MIAMI | The community of Belen Jesuit Preparatory School bid farewell to a great priest and friend Feb. 12, when parents, students, alumni, faculty, priests and friends gathered to pay tribute to Jesuit Father Jorge Sardiña, who died at age 80 of heart failure.

Father Sardiña had worked at the school since 1981, both as a teacher and as counselor to students in sixth and seventh grade. All who knew him said they treasured indelible memories of the dedicated priest.

“He was my father figure,” said Demetrio Perez, a 1994 graduate of the all-boys school, “the person who welcomed me, supported me when I needed it and interceded with my family when I got in trouble. He was more than a friend. He was a father.”

Ariel Fernandez, class of 1999, described Father Sardiña as “truly a saint. He was never upset. He never knew how to say no. Anybody could come to see him for counseling, even when he was sick. We truly have gained a saint in heaven.”

“He was like a best friend to me,” said sixth-grader Justin Colyer. “He never let anybody leave (his office) empty-handed, without a piece of candy.”

Fellow sixth-grader Pablo Perez remembered Father Sardiña as “always smiling and happy. He knew he was going to heaven.”

A priest for 49 years, Father Sardiña was born in Havana, the grandson of a former Cuban president.

He studied at Belen Jesuit School there and graduated in 1945. One of his classmates was Fidel Castro.

Father Sardiña fulfilled a childhood dream when he entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1947, completing his studies in Spain and Canada.

He was ordained June 20, 1959, but could not exercise his ministry in his homeland: In 1961, Castro shut down his alma mater, along with all Catholic schools, and expelled priests and religious from the island.

Father Sardiña came to Miami that year along with other Jesuits. They immediately re-established the school on the first floor of Gesu Church in downtown Miami.

He served in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic from 1965 to 1981, then returned to Miami as teacher and spiritual director at Belen.

A fellow Jesuit, Father Eduardo Barrios, described Father Sardiña as “very pious, faithful to prayer and silence … a man for God and for others,” in keeping with the Jesuit motto.

Auxiliary Bishop John Noonan, representing Archbishop John C. Favalora at the memorial Mass, told the students “how lucky you were to be welcomed to Belen by a godly and holy man … a man who truly lived the Gospels and truly understood them.

“He was a priest of Jesus Christ, he listened to Christ, he knew Christ and lived Christ in others. He cared for you, he taught you, he loved you, he understood you,” Bishop Noonan continued. “Honor him by living your lives like he lived his — loving God and others.”

Leal writes for La Voz Católica, the monthly Spanish-language newspaper of the archdiocese.

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‘He was more than a friend’

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