A priest with a family tie to Columbus was named the 13th bishop of the diocese early Saturday.
Father Earl Fernandes, 49, a priest in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, was selected by Pope Francis to replace Bishop Robert Brennan, who shepherded the Diocese of Columbus for 2 ½ years before he was chosen to lead the Diocese of Brooklyn on Sept. 29 and installed there on Nov. 30.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington, D.C., who is the papal representative to the United States, made the announcement at 6 a.m. Saturday, which is noon in Rome.
The bishop-elect will be introduced at a news conference at 10:30 a.m. today, which will be available for viewing on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXqDOq997SY
“Grateful to Almighty God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary for my vocation and recognizing my own unworthiness, I accepted, with fear and trepidation but also with joy, the appointment by Pope Francis to serve as the 13th bishop of the Diocese of Columbus,” Bishop-elect Fernandes said in a news release.
“I thank His Holiness, as well His Excellency Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio, for giving me the opportunity to proclaim the joy of the Gospel in the Diocese of Columbus, the capital of our beloved state of Ohio.
“I look forward to meeting the People of God – the priests, deacons, religious, and lay faithful of the Diocese of Columbus – and to collaborating with them in announcing the joyful Good News and building the Kingdom of God. I ask for your prayers, not only for me but also for our Diocese, that the Holy Spirit may enkindle in all of us the fire of His Divine Love. May God grant me the grace to serve His people well and to be an ardent yet gentle shepherd, whose heart is formed after the Heart of Jesus.”
“We will miss Father Fernandes’ incredible intellect, unflagging energy, and concern for all people, but know that these traits will serve him well as he expands his ministry to shepherd the faithful people of Columbus,” said the Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr, archbishop of Cincinnati.
“Bishop-elect Fernandes has ministered to the people of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in many ways since his ordination to the priesthood.
“Over the past 20 years, he has served as a dean, pastor, parochial vicar, seminary academic dean, associate professor, high school teacher, and retreat leader, as well as being a regular contributor to The Catholic Telegraph and other publications.
“Through all his assignments, Father Fernandes has been an ever-joyful witness to the goodness, beauty and truth of the Catholic faith. His lasting legacy in the archdiocese will be the impact he has had on our people. Please join me in congratulating Bishop-elect Fernandes on this joyous news. Let us keep our beloved brother in prayer as he starts this new ministry.”
“Pope Francis’ announcement today appointing the Reverend Earl Fernandes as the 13th Bishop of Columbus is great news indeed,” Bishop Brennan said. “I couldn’t be happier for him and the Church in Columbus.
“In my time in Ohio, I came to know Bishop-elect Fernandes as a neighbor and through his service on the Board of the Pontifical College Josephinum. He will bring his many talents, a deep faith, and a genuine love for the Lord to a Church that is vibrant with that same love for the Lord.
“I join the Diocese of Columbus in prayer for their new shepherd, confident that Bishop-elect Fernandes will be as happy as I was and blessed in his ministry.”
“Today’s news is a joy-filled moment for all of us here in the Diocese of Columbus,” said Msgr. Stephan Moloney, who has served as the diocesan administrator of the Diocese of Columbus since Bishop Brennan’s departure. “We look forward to welcoming Bishop-elect Fernandes to our Catholic family here in central and south-central Ohio and embracing him as our new bishop. He comes to us from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and brings with him his many gifts, especially a deep desire to love and serve the Lord and all God’s people, not just here but everywhere.
“We know and trust that Bishop-elect Fernandes will be a wonderful, deeply caring shepherd for all of us here in the Diocese of Columbus, and I know he will find the warmest of welcomes from his new diocesan family.”
Bishop-elect Fernandes will become the youngest Roman Catholic bishop to currently lead a U.S. diocese. Five American bishops are younger, but three are auxiliary bishops and one is Bishop Milan Lach of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio.
The bishop-to-be will join one of his four brothers in Columbus. Dr. Ashley Fernandes is the associate director of the Center for Bioethics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and an associate professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Bishop-elect Fernandes will be ordained and installed on Tuesday, May 31. Details about his ordination and installation will be released in the near future.
Bishop-elect Fernandes, a native of Toledo and a graduate of St. Francis de Sales School, has served as pastor of St. Ignatius of Loyola Church in the Monfort Heights area of Cincinnati since 2019. Prior to his current pastorate, he was assigned to the staff of the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C., where he worked for 3½ years. The Nunciature is the Vatican’s diplomatic mission to the United States and the equivalent of an embassy.
He had spent the previous eight years, from 2008 to 2016, as the dean of the Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati and a professor of moral theology. During that period, he was assigned to Guardian Angels Church in Cincinnati as a weekend assistant from 2008 to 2014 and as the administrator of Sacred Heart Church in Cincinnati from 2014 to 2016.
During the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy from 2015 to 2016, Father Fernandes was named a missionary of mercy.
Bishop-Elect Fernandes’ first assignment as a priest after he was ordained in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 18, 2002 was as a parochial vicar at Holy Angels Church in Sidney and a religion teacher at Lehman Catholic High School until 2004. At that time, he was sent for additional studies in Rome, where he received a doctorate in moral theology from the Alphonsian Academy.
Additionally, he is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Pontifical College Josephinum, the Advisory Board of Pregnancy Center East in Cincinnati and of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, and also was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Catholic Theological Schools from 2012 to 2016.
Since 2012, he has been a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In 2014, Father Fernandes concluded a three-year term on the board of the Starfire Council of Greater Cincinnati, which assists disabled persons.
A prolific writer and speaker, the bishop-elect is the author of one book and a number of essays and articles, and he previously penned “A Question of Faith” column for the archdiocese’s newspaper, The Catholic Telegraph.
He has given presentations, talks and retreats throughout the country and has published articles in three collections of essays by the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska, which also published a book authored by him in 2014.
Father Fernandes’ scholarly essays have also appeared in Seminary Journal, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, The Linacre Quarterly and Journal of the National Apostolate for Inclusion Ministry. His articles in the latter two addressed issues of persons with disabilities.
The fourth of five boys and the son of Indian immigrants, Bishop-elect Fernandes received an undergraduate degree from the University of Toledo and came to the University of Cincinnati for medical school before discerning a calling to the priesthood.
In addition to English, Bishop-elect Fernandes is fluent in Italian, Spanish and French and has reading knowledge of Latin.
His interests include reading and writing, sports, movies, hiking, education, culture and languages.
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.
“I applaud the Holy Father’s appointment of Father Fernandes and I welcome him as the new shepherd of the Catholic faithful of Columbus,” Cleveland Bishop Edward Malesic said in a statement. “Said to be a priest of strong intellect and unwavering energy, I look forward to getting to know Bishop-elect Fernandes and working with him as together we address the needs and concerns of the Catholic community in Ohio through the Ohio Conference of Catholic Bishops. May God bless Bishop-elect Fernandes always as he begins his new and very important ministry.”
“All of us in the Diocese of Toledo offer prayerful congratulations to our native son, Father Earl K. Fernandes, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, who today was announced by the Holy Father as the 13th Bishop of the Diocese of Columbus (Ohio)!” Diocese of Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas said. “We rejoice with and for Bishop- Elect Fernandes and his family, and we’re so glad he won’t be far from home! May Jesus, the Good Shepherd, fill him with every grace to serve the People of God as Shepherd of the local Church of Columbus, faithfully, humbly and joyfully! “Ad Multos Annos!”
