Monsignor Gerard LaCerra Dies At 57

By Carol Rosenberg

The Rev. Monsignor Gerard Thomas LaCerra, a former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Miami and present pastor of St. Timothy's Catholic Church, died Tuesday while leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was 57.

The priest was aboard an Istanbul-to-Tel Aviv flight with about 40 Miami-area parishioners when he died of an apparent heart attack, said Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami.

His sister Arlene Gallie was sitting beside him.

``He had just finished a meal, got up to use the restroom, came back, sat down, and said something like `I don't feel well,' and closed his eyes,'' said Agosta.

A doctor among the parishioners tried to resuscitate him, said the Rev. Marcos Somarriba, St. Timothy's parochial vicar.

Most parishioners chose to carry on with the pilgrimage, which departed on a Turkish Airlines flight from Miami on Sunday and had an overnight stay Monday in Istanbul.

LaCerra's sister, his secretary and a deacon were to accompany his body home for a funeral Mass at St. Timothy's, 5300 SW 102nd Ave., to be said by Archbishop John C. Favalora.

``He led a good life, God bless him,'' said Archbishop Emeritus Edward A. McCarthy, for whom LaCerra served as a spokesman and point man from 1978 until 1991.

He was also rector of St. Mary's Cathedral from 1980 until 1991, when he became seriously ill after catching a cold that spiraled into viral cardiomyopathy, a virus in the heart. In April 1991, LaCerra received a heart transplant in Houston from an unidentified 17-year-old donor and the archbishop cut back on his archdiocese activities.

He was installed at St. Timothy's on Valentine's Day two years later -- where he frequently mentioned the miracle transplant to his parish.

``The transplant has made me realize how God uses good from an evil situation,'' he told a Herald reporter at the time of his 1993 installation. ``There's such an incredible need for organ donors.''

McCarthy said he saw the monsignor just last week. The retired archbishop dropped in at St. Timothy's with his brother, also a priest, and LaCerra enthusiastically showed him expansion plans under way at the parish and accompanying school.

``He seemed to be in very good shape at that time,'' McCarthy said. ``He was walking me all around the place.''

Born March 12, 1943, in Chicago, LaCerra moved to Fort Lauderdale before he was a year old and recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of his ordination.

``He was a wonderful man, a man of much compassion, with a big heart,'' said Somarriba.

Pope John Paul II designated him Prelate of Honor with the title of Reverend Monsignor in 1995.

In lieu of flowers, the monsignor specified in his will that donations be made to St. Mary's Cathedral Elementary School.

Besides his sister, he is survived by a brother, Don LaCerra of Deerfield Beach. Funeral arrangements were incomplete, although a viewing was expected on Aug. 3 with the funeral Mass Aug. 4.

Copyright © 2000 Miami Herald.

This article posted August 9, 2000.