Most Reverend Earl K Fernandez

Earl Kenneth Fernandes (born September 21, 1972) is Catholic prelate who has served as the 13th Bishop of Columbus in Ohio since 2022.

Fernandes is the first Indian-American bishop of the Latin Church in the United States, the first person of color to serve as the bishop of the Diocese of Columbus, and the youngest diocesan bishop in the United States.

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 Sydney, Ohio. In 2004, 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. 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. While in Rome, Fernandes was also trained as an exorcist.

Back in Ohio, Fernandes taught at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati and served as the academic dean there. 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.

Fernandes served as parochial administrator of Sacred Heart Parish from July 2014 to March 2016. 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... 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.

Fernandes was also named a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that year.

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.

Fernandes served as the pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Cincinnati from 2019 to 2022. Fernandes became pastor of the parish after his predecessor was accused of a rape. Parishioners at St. Ignatius spoke highly of him and his management of the parish following the crisis.

Fernandes is a fourth-degree knight of columbus, as well as a member of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has served as a judge on the archdiocesan marriage tribunal, and as a board member of the Pontifical College Josephinum.

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. 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. Fernandes is the fourth bishop of Columbus who was initially ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. At his consecration as bishop, Fernandes was the youngest ordinary bishop in the United States.