Earl K. Fernandes

Earl Kenneth Fernandes was born on September 21, 1972, in Toledo, Ohio,[4] to Sydney Oswald and Thelma (née Noronha) Fernandes. His parents were born in Goa and Mangalore, respectively, growing up in and emigrating to the United States from Bombay (now Mumbai), India in 1971.[5][6] His father 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, and his mother was a teacher.[6] Fernandes has four brothers, one of whom is a deacon at St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Ukranian Church, Rossford, Ohio[7][8][9][10] Fernandes recalled that his spiritual formation was fostered by the love of the Christian faith his parents inculcated in him.[9] Every day, Fernandes's mother started the day with a morning offering prayer and when the family went to visit their father working in the hospital, he was often found praying in the hospital chapel in his spare time,[9] and often offered free medical care to patients.[6]

The family attended St. Thomas Aquinas Parish on the east side of Toledo, a working-class church that Fernandes says was like a second home to him.[6][11] Fernandes attended St. Francis De Sales School, graduating in 1990 — the same class as Toledo mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.[12]

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 England.[13] 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.[6] Like his four brothers, Fernandes was accepted into medical school and studied medicine for two years at the University of Cincinnati.[3] He left there to enter Casa Balthazar, a house of discernment in Rome, and in 1997, he entered seminary studies for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati at Mount Saint Mary's of the West. He was ordained a deacon on September 29, 2001,[13] and earned master's degrees in theology and divinity in 2002.[13]

St. Ignatius of Loyola Church (Cincinnati, Ohio) where Fernandes was pastor.

Fernandes was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 18, 2002, by Daniel Edward Pilarczyk at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains. His first pastoral assignment was as vicar of Holy Angels Parish and a teacher at Lehman Catholic High School.[3] Following this, he studied at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome, being awarded a doctorate in moral theology with a concentration in bioethics in 2007.[13] During this time, he encountered the lay ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation, and was deeply impacted by it.[14] He then taught at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati and served as the academic dean there.[4] In 2013, he published a book titled "Seminary Formation and Homosexuality" with the Institute for Priestly Formation, which defended Pope Benedict XVI's ban of the admission of gay men to Catholic seminaries,[15]

He was parochial administrator of Sacred Heart parish from July 2014 to March 2016.[13] There he celebrated the Tridentine Mass along with services in Italian and English. He said most in attendance at the Latin Mass were young people "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."[16] Fernandes was also named a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that year.[17]

In 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.[13]

He served as the pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola parish in Cincinnati from 2019 until his appointment as bishop of Columbus in 2022.[18] Fernandes became pastor of the parish after his predecessor was accused of the rape of an altar boy at a prior assignment. [19].Parishioners there spoke highly of him and his management of the parish following the crisis.[20]

Fernandes is a fourth-degree Knight of Columbus, a member of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, a judge on the archdiocesan marriage tribunal, a member of the board of trustees of the Pontifical College Josephinum,[13] and an exorcist for the archdiocese.[21]

On April 2, 2022, Fernandes was appointed bishop-elect of the Diocese of Columbus by Pope Francis, with his episcopal consecration and installation scheduled for May 31, 2022 at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westerville, Ohio.[22] He will be 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.[2] Fernandes is the fourth bishop of Columbus who was initially ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati; the others being Sylvester Rosecrans, Henry K. Moeller, and Clarence George Issenmann.[23]

Fernandes intends to carry on the "Real Presence Real Future" initiative which was a hallmark of his predecessor, bishop Robert J. Brennan's, time in the diocese.[24] 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."[25] The process likely will result in some parishes closing.[26]

•   Holy See: Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre[3]