ORLANDO | After more than five decades of serving the Diocese of Orlando, Dominican Sister of Adrian Lucy Vazquez has retired leaving a legacy of firsts for women and a tapestry of caring for those to whom she ministered.

“Sister Lucy is a woman of Vatican II,” said Bishop John Noonan. “She led with integrity and justice. Her gifts were to serve the needs of all with truth and justice.”

Judicial Vicar Father Fernando Gil knew Sister Vasquez well and witnessed her fervor and love for her job. “Those of us who do tribunal work recognize greatness when we see it and, undoubtfully, Sister Lucy Vazquez leads the top list of the greatest in the canonical field,” Father Gil said.

Sister Vazquez came to the Diocese of Orlando to serve as associate family life director. She became the first woman director of the tribunal and Defender of the Bond in 1982. The title “director” was created for her as only a priest can be named “oficialis of the tribunal.”

Prior to her appointment to the position by Bishop Thomas Grady, Sister Vazquez already established a tradition of firsts. In 1975 she was the first of two women to receive a doctorate in Canon Law from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 1977, she became the vicar for religious in the Diocese of Orlando, traditionally a position held by priests. The following year she became part of the marriage tribunal.

In 1990 Sister Vazquez became the first female president of the Canon Law Society of America. Five years later she was the first woman to receive the Role of Law award from the same organization. In 1991, she became the first female chancellor in Florida, one of 18 out of almost 200 dioceses/archdioceses in the Unites States at the time.
Perhaps it was her experience as the first high school girl to arrive via the Pedro Pan or Unaccompanied Cuban Children’s Program in the 1960s that nurtured her strength and moral character. As a teen, she would not be reunited with her parents for seven years.

“I think my faith was the anchor for me when I came just having turned 16,” she said in a 2018 interview with Florida Catholic. “Coming from a close-knit family and the values my parents instilled in me sustained me and helped me in forming me after I was separated from them.”

Two years later arriving in Florida, she entered the Dominican congregation of St. Catherine de Ricci. After the order dissolved, she became a Dominican Sister of Adrian.

Not a fan of recognition, Sister Vazquez said she feels she only did her duty. In a 1993 interview she noted, “Baptism empowers all of us to assume leadership positions in the Church and to live out our Christian vocation.” Rather than considering her own impact, she acknowledged that of women in the Church who preceded her, educators of immigrant children who affected the “growth and development of the Church.”

Yet it is her work in the Tribunal that perhaps marked her most notable influence.

“Sister Lucy’s role in constructing the foundation and pillars of our diocesan tribunal has remained the cornerstone of our diocesan judicial system,” Father Gil said. “Her greatest accomplishment was to implement the directions provided by the Code of Canon Law of 1983 and the procedural reforms enacted by Pope Francis in 2016 into the reality of matrimonial cases, acting not merely as a degreed legal practitioner but also as a convinced Christian, a brilliant jurist, an accomplished expert, an outstanding teacher, a canonical pioneer, a team worker and a learned scholar.

“She interpreted Church Law as an instrument of healing, fairness, mercy and protection of rights of the people of God, and not simply a corpus of formalistic principles and empty traditionalism,” he continued. “Her abilities were precisely what the Diocese needed to confront and resolve serious crises when she served in her role as a Chancellor and as Victim Assistant Coordinator.”

As coordinator, Sister Vazquez helped develop a system that included fingerprinting and conducting criminal background checks for all diocesan staff and volunteers.

Father Gil summed up Sister Vazquez’s impact well when he said, “The courage, passion and determination of Sister Lucy constitute an inspirational image of a great legal mind, which reminds a new generation of canonists about the true purpose of Church Law, namely, the salvation of souls.”

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, June 13, 2024