John Gerard Noonan
John Gerard Noonan was born on February 26, 1951, in Limerick, Ireland, the son of John Noonan and Margaret Purcell. At eighteen he emigrated to New York and later settled in Miami. He took a bachelor's degree at St. John Vianney College Seminary in 1979 and a Master of Divinity at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, and Archbishop Edward McCarthy ordained him a priest of Miami on September 23, 1983.
His priesthood was spent forming priests. After six years as a parochial vicar in Pompano Beach and two as a youth-ministry chaplain, he became dean of men at his old college seminary (1989-1993), supervising principal of two Miami high schools, and took a Master of Education at Boston College in 1996. That year he returned to St. John Vianney as rector-president for nine years, adding Priestly Life and Ministry in 2001. John Paul II made him a monsignor in 2001; Benedict XVI named him auxiliary bishop of Miami and titular bishop of Bonusta on June 21, 2005, and he was consecrated that August 24.
On October 23, 2010, Benedict named him fifth Bishop of Orlando; he was installed on December 16, 2010, taking the motto 'God before me and God with me.' On his seventy-fifth birthday, February 26, 2026, he offered his retirement to Pope Leo XIV under Canon 401, and remains in office awaiting a successor.
- 2018-07-29Pre-TC context: the All Souls, Sanford bulletin lists Sunday Masses at 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (Latin) at the Historic Chapel, with Fr. Andrzej Jurkiewicz as Latin Mass Celebrant. ↗
- 2020-07-11Pre-TC context: CNA reports Queen of Peace, Ocala offers the extraordinary form weekly, celebrated by an FSSP priest who drives to Ocala from a church in Sarasota. ↗
- 2022-03-01The FSSP apostolate at Christ the King, Sarasota lists 'Ocala 4:30 pm Mass' on the Sundays of its March 2022 calendar, eight months after Traditionis Custodes; the same weekly Ocala entry recurs in its March 2023 calendar. ↗
- 2022-10-21The All Souls, Sanford bulletin still names Fr. Andrzej Jurkiewicz as Latin Mass Celebrant, fifteen months after Traditionis Custodes. ↗
- 2025-02-09The Christ the King, Sarasota (FSSP) February 2025 calendar lists 'Ocala - 4:30 pm Mass' on Sundays and a Monday 7 a.m. Mass at Ocala, i.e. the FSSP ministry to Queen of Peace was still running in 2025. ↗
- 2025-06-22The All Souls, Sanford bulletin lists 'Latin Mass - 2:00 PM Historic Chapel' in its standing schedule and again names Fr. Jurkiewicz as Latin Mass Celebrant. ↗
- 2026-01-18The Queen of Peace, Ocala bulletin still lists 'Traditional Latin Mass 4:30 p.m.' on Sundays; the same standing listing appears in the parish bulletins of 1 Jun 2025 and 22 Mar 2026. ↗
Orlando is the quiet case. Bishop Noonan has been in place since 2010, so the diocese's two documented traditional Latin Masses are both his own inheritance from his own pre-Traditionis Custodes years: the Sunday 2:00 p.m. Mass at the Historic Chapel of All Souls in Sanford, offered for years by the diocesan priest Fr. Andrzej Jurkiewicz and described in diocesan job material as 'the diocesan Traditional Latin Mass,' and the Sunday Mass at Queen of Peace in Ocala, offered weekly by priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter who travel up from Christ the King in Sarasota. When Traditionis Custodes came in July 2021, no Orlando decree, statement or restriction by Bishop Noonan appears in the diocesan record, in the Catholic News Agency and National Catholic Register roundups of bishops' responses, or on traditioniscustodes.info, which carries no Orlando entry at all.
And nothing on the ground changed. The FSSP calendars at Sarasota list 'Ocala - 4:30 p.m. Mass' on Sundays through 2022, 2023 and into February 2025; Queen of Peace bulletins still list 'Traditional Latin Mass 4:30 p.m.' in June 2025, January 2026 and March 2026; and All Souls bulletins still list the 2:00 p.m. Latin Mass at the Historic Chapel, with Fr. Jurkiewicz still named Latin Mass Celebrant, in October 2022 and June 2025. No site was closed, moved or consolidated, and none was added.
Honesty about the category matters here. Continuation is not the same as a bishop's act: unlike bishops who published letters granting faculties, Noonan has left no dated public act of his own on the old Mass, so under this project's rule his posture is filed as no_record, with the preservation stated in full. What can fairly be said is that the two communities were neither scattered nor squeezed on his watch, across the whole TC era, and that the FSSP's cross-diocesan ministry to Ocala could not have run for five years without his at least tacit consent.