Near the end of a busy Confirmation season, Bishop Earl Fernandes conferred the sacrament on 58 teens and young adults at Columbus Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization Parish at Holy Name Church on May 28.
After the evening Mass, the bishop offered some brief reflections to the congregants at the parish, which was created last year as a result of the diocese’s Real Presence Real Future initiative.
As he looked out at a packed sanctuary during the Confirmation, he said he could see a hunger and thirst for Jesus and a great love for His mother, Mary.
“This is your chance to be the parish and the people that God is calling you to be,” he said. “I would not say this unless I believed in you and in the power of God at work in you.”
He then addressed two of the main themes of his episcopate: vocations and evangelization.
The bishop spoke directly to the young people, asking, “Where are the Latinos with regard to vocations, especially priestly vocations? This is not meant to be a condemnation. It is meant to be an invitation to listen to God each and every day, to ask God each day how He is calling you to serve His church.”
He went on to say that a million additional people are projected to be living in the diocese in the next 10 years “and every one of them needs Jesus Christ. And I need every one of you to bring Jesus Christ and the love of His mother, Mary, to them.
“And to do that, to use an Army term, I need boots on the ground. I need priests and religious willing to sacrifice to be bearers of the Good News.”
With one out of seven Mass-going Catholics currently living in the diocese who consider Spanish their first language, the bishop said there is an urgent need for Spanish-speaking priests.
“My young people, we need you,” Bishop Fernandes said. “I need you to help me carry out my mission, so that when I am an old bishop, 25 years from now, I can send in my resignation to the pope and say, ‘Look at our church in Columbus, look at how it’s changed. These are my priests, and these are my religious, and these are my people who speak Spanish and English and Portuguese.
“We need a church that represents the people of God around the world.”
The bishop urged everyone to be a “living part of our diocese, not just a Spanish parish, and not just you young people, who will be the future of our diocese. … I need (all of) you and I believe in you, and with the Holy Spirit at work in you, I believe we can proclaim the Good News of salvation to every creature under Heaven.”