Earl K. Fernandes
Earl Kenneth Fernandes (born September 21, 1972) is a Catholic prelate who has served as the 13th Bishop of Columbus in Ohio since 2022.
Earl Kenneth Fernandes | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bishop of Columbus | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Church | Catholic | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Diocese | Columbus | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Appointed | April 2, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Robert J. Brennan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Orders | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ordination | May 18, 2002 by Daniel Edward Pilarczyk | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Consecration | May 31, 2022 by Dennis Marion Schnurr, Christophe Pierre and Robert J. Brennan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Earl Kenneth Fernandes September 21, 1972 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Indian-American | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Parents | Sydney and Thelma Fernandes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous post(s) | Academic Dean, Mount St. Mary's Seminary Exorcist, Archdiocese of Cincinnati Secretary, Apostolic Nunciature to the United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Toledo University of Salford University of Cincinnati Athenaeum of Ohio Alphonsian Academy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Motto | Latin: Veni Per Mariam English: Come Through Mary[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Coat of arms | |||||||||||||||||||||
Ordination history | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Styles of Earl Kenneth Fernandes | |
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| Reference style | |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Bishop |
Fernandes is the first Indian-American bishop of the Latin Church in the United States,[2] the first person of color to serve as the bishop of Columbus,[3] and the youngest diocesan bishop in the United States.[4][5]
Biography edit
Early life edit
Earl Fernandes was born on September 21, 1972, in Toledo, Ohio,[6] to Sydney Oswald and Thelma (née Noronha) Fernandes. His mother and father were born in Goa and Mangalore, respectively, but raised in Mumbai. The family emigrated to the United States in 1971.[7][8][9] Sydney worked as a physician, being granted a green card in part due to the need for doctors in America during the time around the Vietnam War. Thelma was a teacher.[8] Fernandes has four brothers, one of whom is a deacon in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.[10][11][12][13]
Fernandes recalls that his spiritual formation was fostered by the love of the Christian faith his parents inculcated in him.[12] Thelma started every day with a morning offering prayer. When the family went to visit Sydney working at St. Charles Hospital in Oregon, Ohio,[14] they often found him praying in the hospital chapel in his spare time.[12] He often offered free medical care to patients.[8]
The Fernandes family attended St. Thomas Aquinas Church on the east side of Toledo, a working-class church that Fernandes says was like a second home to him.[8][15] Thelma had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Consolation and would make a pilgrimage each year to the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Cary, Ohio. She would give her boys money to light the devotional candles, as she wrote down her petitions.[16] He also attended parochial school at St. Thomas.[17] Fernandes attended St. Francis De Sales School, graduating as salutatorian in 1990.[18]
Fernandes earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Toledo in 1994 and later studied physiology for a year at the University of Salford in Salford, England.[19] During a trip to Rome in 1995, he began to feel called to the priesthood through an experience he had in prayer at the Tomb of Saint Peter in the Vatican.[8] Like his four brothers, Fernandes was accepted into medical school and studied medicine for two years at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.[4] He left there to enter Casa Balthazar, a house of discernment in Rome, and in 1997, he entered seminary studies at Mount Saint Mary's of the West in Cincinnati. Fernandes was ordained a deacon on September 29, 2001,[19] and earned master's degrees in theology and divinity in 2002.[19]
Priesthood edit
Fernandes was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 18, 2002, by Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati. His first pastoral assignment was as vicar of Holy Angels Parish and a teacher at Lehman Catholic High School in Sidney, Ohio.[4] In 2004,[8] Fernandes went to Rome to study at the Alphonsian Academy, attaining his licentiate in moral theology in 2006 and a doctorate in moral theology with a concentration in bioethics in November 2007.[17][19] During this time, he encountered the lay ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation, and was deeply impacted by it. His episcopal motto is drawn from a prayer of the movement.[20][8] While in Rome, Fernandes was also trained as an exorcist with Carmine De Filippis, an exorcist of the Diocese of Rome.[21][22]
Back in Ohio, Fernandes taught at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati and served as the academic dean there.[6] In 2013, he published a book, Seminary Formation and Homosexuality, with the Institute for Priestly Formation. It defended Pope Benedict XVI's ban of the admission of gay men to Catholic seminaries.[23]
Fernandes served as parochial administrator of Sacred Heart Parish from July 2014 to March 2016.[19] There he celebrated the Tridentine Mass along with masses in Italian and English. He said most in attendance at the Latin Mass were young people who were:
... Looking for reverence and beauty, a sense of transcendence, and to be connected to their parents and grandparents, the generations of faith... The Latin Mass is also quiet. There’s so much noise and business in our lives. They enter into the liturgies interiorly and love it for its tradition, the Faith of their fathers.[24]
Fernandes was also named a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that year.[25]
In March of 2016, Fernandes began to serve as a secretary to the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, first to Archbishop Carlo Viganò and then Archbishop Christophe Pierre.[19][26]
Fernandes served as the pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Cincinnati from 2019 to 2022.[27] Fernandes became pastor of the parish after his predecessor was accused of a rape.[28] Parishioners at St. Ignatius spoke highly of him and his management of the parish following the crisis.[29][30]
Fernandes is a fourth-degree Knight of Columbus, as well as a member of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He has served as a judge on the archdiocesan marriage tribunal, and as a board member of the Pontifical College Josephinum.[19]
Bishop of Columbus edit
On April 2, 2022, Fernandes was appointed 13th bishop of the Diocese of Columbus by Pope Francis, with his episcopal consecration and installation by Archbishop Dennis Schnurr occurring on May 31, 2022 at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westerville, Ohio.[31] Fernandes is the first Indian American bishop to serve in the Latin Church in the United States, as well as the first person of color to serve as head of the Diocese of Columbus.[3] Fernandes is the fourth bishop of Columbus who was initially ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.[32] At the time of his consecration as bishop, Fernandes was the youngest ordinary bishop in the United States.[4][5]
Fernandes indicated his intention to continue the "Real Presence Real Future" initiative of his predecessor, Bishop Robert J. Brennan.[33] The initiative "aims to determine how to maintain a strong Catholic presence in the diocese’s 23 counties and make the best use of its resources."[34] The process was expected to result in some parishes closing.[35] Fernandes aided in similar efforts for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati before being moved to Columbus.[36]
One of Fernandes's first actions as bishop was to install a diocesan priest at the Newman Center of the Ohio State University in Columbus.[37] According to the diocese, the Paulist Fathers operating the ministry would be permitted to remain under the new pastor, but the Paulist leadership declined and some parishioners issued complaints regarding Fernandes's decision.[38] The Paulist Fathers, who had managed the ministry for 65 years, were replaced as part of what the diocese termed as an effort to align the student ministry more closely with the objectives of the diocese and to promote the addition of new Catholic lay organizations, including Opus Dei and Courage International.[39]
Fernandes affirmed to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments the prior request of Bishop Brennan to elevate St. Mary of the Assumption in Lancaster, Ohio, to a minor basilica. On July 7, 2022, Cardinal Arthur Roche bestowed the title of minor basilica upon St. Mary.[40]
Distinctions edit
Foreign orders edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Bishop-designate surprised by his appointment". The Catholic Times. April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ "Starting Seven: July 12, 2023". The Pillar. July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
- ^ a b King, Danae; Doyle, Céilí (April 2, 2022). "Columbus Diocese's new Bishop-elect Earl Fernandes is first Indian-American Catholic bishop". The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus, OH. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Bean, Doug (April 2, 2022). . The Catholic Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
The bishop-elect's devoted Catholic parents came to the United States from the Goa state of southwestern India in the early 1970s. His father was a physician, and the five boys in the family followed in his footsteps and were accepted to medical school. Three of them completed med school, Bishop-elect Fernandes answered his call to the priesthood and another brother is now a judge in Toledo.
- ^ a b Hodge, Brendan (May 23, 2023). "America's aging bishops". The Pillar. from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
- ^ a b "Resignations and Appointments, 02.04.2022". Vatican Press. April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ Dsouza, Alfie; Mangalorean, Team (April 4, 2022). "Fr Earl Fernandes, Son of Goan Parents, the FIRST Indian-American Roman Catholic Bishop in USA". Mangalorean.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g "04/18/22- Bishop Elect Earl Fernandes- Easter Greeting - St Gabriel Catholic Radio". Saint Gabriel Catholic Radio. April 19, 2022. pp. (timestamps) 00:55, 01:35, 3:50, 10:15, 16:05, 25:00, 38:00. from the original on April 19, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ^ "Thelma R. Fernandes Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information". www.walkerfuneralhomes.com. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
- ^ "Christ in Our Midst". Annunciation Radio. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
- ^ "Four men are ordained deacons in Toledo diocese". The Blade. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c Mullen, Shannon (April 2, 2022). "Pope Francis appoints first Indian-American to head a U.S. Roman Catholic diocese". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
- ^ "Sydney Fernandes Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information". www.walkerfuneralhomes.com. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ Telegraph, The Catholic. "Raised in Faith: The Early life of Bishop Elect Earl Fernandes". Catholic Telegraph. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ Dsouza, Alfie; Mangalorean, Team (April 9, 2022). "AN EXCLUSIVE: Fr Earl Fernandes having Mluru Roots, the FIRST Indian-American Appointed as BISHOP in US". Mangalorean.com. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- ^ Telegraph, The Catholic. "Thelma Fernandes, mother of Bishop Earl Fernandes, passed away on Oct. 5". Catholic Times. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
- ^ a b Catholic Diocese of Columbus (May 30, 2022). "Bishop Fernandes Ordination Vespers And Mass Program". archive.org.
- ^ "New Columbus Bishop grew up in, went to school in Toledo". wtol.com. April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Congratulations to Our Own Father Earl K. Fernandes, Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Columbus". Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ Telegraph, The Catholic. "The Way of the Cross and Public Witness". Catholic Telegraph. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
- ^ King, Danae. "5 things to know: Columbus Catholic bishop-elect Earl Fernandes". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
- ^ Thavis, John (2015). The Vatican prophecies : investigating supernatural signs, apparitions, and miracles in the modern age. Internet Archive. New York, New York : Viking. ISBN 978-0-525-42689-9.
- ^ Fernandes, Earl K. (August 2013). Seminary Formation and Homosexuality. Institute for Priestly Formation. ISBN 978-0-9887613-0-8.
- ^ "The right medicine". One Faith, One Hope, One Love. The Catholic Community Foundation for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. August 18, 2015. from the original on April 25, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ "Cincinnati priest appointed as new Columbus bishop". The Catholic Times. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ^ Staff report (February 24, 2016). "Fernandes to join Nunciature staff". Sidney Daily News.
- ^ "Welcome Reverend Earl K. Fernandes, STD – St. Ignatius of Loyola Church". Retrieved April 28, 2022.
- ^ Cheatham, Craig; WCPO. "Trial for Cincinnati Catholic priest accused of rape rescheduled for October". journal-news. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
- ^ "The Columbus Dispatch". www.dispatch.com. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
- ^ "Former parishioners sad to lose esteemed pastor". The Catholic Times. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
- ^ "Location, time set for Bishop-elect Fernandes's ordination and installation". The Catholic Times. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
- ^ ""Former Bishops" - Catholic Diocese of Columbus". www.google.com. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
- ^ King, Danae (October 12, 2021). "'Hallmark' of his time as bishop, Brennan hopes diocese reorientation continues without him". The Columbus Dispatch. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
- ^ "Bishop-designate surprised by his appointment". The Catholic Times. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
- ^ King, Danae (October 12, 2021). "'Hallmark' of his time as bishop, Brennan hopes diocese reorientation continues without him". The Columbus Dispatch. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
- ^ "Bishop was active in parish restructuring in Archdiocese of Cincinnati". The Catholic Times. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
- ^ "Bishop of Columbus Shifts Direction of Ohio State Newman Center". NCR. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ Behrens, Cole (July 31, 2022). "Paulist priests celebrate their last Mass at Ohio State's Newman Center". Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
- ^ King, Danae (July 1, 2022). "Ohio State's Catholic student ministry to get new leadership at Newman Center". Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
- ^ "Press Release, Diocese of Columbus, Basilica of St. Mary" (PDF). Diocese of Columbus. August 14, 2022.
External links edit
- "Bishop Earl K. Fernandes". Catholic Hierarchy.
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus Official Site
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati Official Site