After attending a Capuchin-run high school in Pennsylvania, Cardinal O’Malley entered St. Fidelis Seminary in the same city. He was ordained a Capuchin priest in 1970, ordained a bishop in 1984, named Archbishop of Boston in 2003, and created a cardinal in 2006.
“I have been a priest for 53 years. “It hasn’t always been easy, it hasn’t always been fun, but it has been wonderful, and I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said.
Mons. Earl Fernandes
The Bishop of Columbus, Ohio, Bishop Earl Fernandes, 51, has been a bishop for more than a year, a priest for more than 20, and assures that he has “no regrets.”
Raised in a faithful Catholic family in Toledo, Ohio, something “awakened” in Bishop Fernandes while he was studying abroad in Europe during college, attending daily Mass, he told CNA.
Bishop Fernandes had already expressed interest in the priesthood in high school by requesting that vocational materials be sent to his home during a class at his Catholic high school. In eighth grade, he and his classmates had to predict what each of them would be in 50 years, and “mine predicted that I would be the first American Pope.”
While studying abroad during Christmas 1992, Bishop Fernandes visited Rome and his heart began to “beat hard” when he saw the burial sites of former popes.
“And then I came to St. Peter’s tomb and knelt down. I knew at that moment what God was calling me to, and yet, I was afraid,” he recounted.
Despite his experience, he returned home, applied and was accepted to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. His mother always encouraged him to dedicate himself to the field of Medicine, like his father. Three of his four brothers are doctors today.
“My mother also told us, let’s pray that you are a good boy, a tall boy and a doctor, just like my dad. But I realized that, in the end, you can run from God, but he will chase you,” he said.
Bishop Fernandes continued to attend daily Mass and one day attended a church where there were two elderly Italian priests, one 85 and the other 75. Bishop Fernandes noted that these priests were “faithful and happy.” “And I thought, ‘I could be that old and be a priest and be happy.’”
Finally he decided to leave medical school to discern the priesthood in Rome. After a year of discernment, he entered the Cincinnati seminary.
Bishop Fernandes was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 18, 2002 and received episcopal ordination on May 31, 2022.
When remembering his vocational career, the prelate said: “God was clearly calling me to be a priest. All the signs were there.”
Bishop Fernandes mentioned that he feels constantly happy and smiles often.
“Well, that’s the joy of being a priest; the joy of knowing I am loved by God and that he is present and close. “He truly brings me a lot of joy and I can’t help but share that joy with those around me,” he concluded.
Translated and adapted by ACI Prensa. Originally published in CNA.