November 20, 2009 |
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Bishop–elect Isern described as prayerful, spiritualFather Fernando Isern, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, will be ordained bishop of Pueblo, Colo., Dec. 10. 
ANA RODRIGUEZ–SOTO | FC Posted: 10.15.09 MIAMI | A very unexpected phone call” — that is how Father Fernando Isern found out he had been named bishop of the Diocese of Pueblo, Colo. The 51–year–old, Cuban–born pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Kendall described the phone call during a press conference Oct. 15 announcing his selection as bishop by Pope Benedict XVI. The call came from the apostolic nuncio in Washington, D.C. “In that phone call you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is in the power of that Spirit that you place all your trust,” said the soft–spoken bishop–elect, who is described as prayerful and spiritual by those who know him. Bishop–elect Isern is the 11th Miami priest to be named a bishop since the archdiocese was established in 1958, and the sixth to be named since 1995, when Archbishop John C. Favalora became archbishop. “On behalf of everyone in the Archdiocese of Miami, I thank our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for honoring the clergy of Miami once again by selecting one of our priests for the office of successor of the apostles,” Archbishop Favalora said. He described Bishop–elect Isern as a priest who “has won the respect of the clergy, religious and laity of Miami as he has demonstrated his good priestly leadership in all of his pastoral assignments.” Archbishop Favalora also noted that Our Lady of Lourdes is “one of the largest parishes in the archdiocese, a community quite diverse, a community whose spirituality and service are quite well–known and admired.” “The people love him,” said Father Richard Vigoa, associate pastor at St. Michael Parish in Miami whose home parish was Our Lady of Lourdes. “He’s a loved pastor. He’s kind and pastoral. He’s a prayerful priest. He’s a good example for so many.” Miami’s retired Auxiliary Bishop Agustín Román said he considered Bishop–elect Isern “like a son.” The two worked together for a time at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity while Bishop–elect Isern was a seminarian. “I admired him very much during that time,” Bishop Román said, noting that Bishop–elect Isern demonstrates “the missionary spirit that is so necessary for a bishop, for a priest, for all Catholics.” “All I wanted was to be a simple parish priest, I guess a pastor. That’s what I hope to be to the people of my diocese, a pastor. That’s what I know how to do,” said Bishop–elect Isern after the press conference. He chose as his motto a phrase found in the second letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 4: “Caritas Christi urget nos” (“The love of Christ compels us”). He said he did so because it was the episcopal motto of St. Antonio Maria Claret, archbishop of Santiago, Cuba, from 1851 to 1857. “His diocese was similar to mine. It is wide, it is large, it is beautiful, it has mountains. I plan to do the same thing he did. I plan to embrace my diocese with a missionary spirit,” Bishop–elect Isern said. The Diocese of Pueblo was established in 1942 and covers the entire southern half of Colorado, from Utah in the west to Kansas in the east. It has nearly 100,000 registered Catholics, constituting about 16 percent of the area’s total population. Bishop–elect Isern will be Pueblo’s fourth bishop, succeeding Bishop Arthur Tafoya, who is retiring after serving as bishop there since 1980. The Miami priest, who loves sailing and photography, said he had never visited that part of the country, but will fly out there Oct. 26. Bishop Tafoya was leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when the announcement was made. Bishop–elect Isern’s ordination will take place Dec. 10 at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pueblo. He said he chose that date because it is close to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the diocese, and honors the “very old” Hispanic roots of the area. “I feel very honored and proud, very proud of my Cuban and Hispanic heritage,” said Bishop–elect Isern, who left Cuba with his family at age 5 to go to Venezuela and then settled in Miami at age 9. “But (I am) also very thankful for the experience of having grown up in a multilingual, multicultural community like south Florida.” Miami Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Estévez predicted “there will be a perfect continuity” between the episcopacy of Bishop Tafoya and that of Bishop–elect Isern, both of whom are “very pastoral, very prayerful.” Bishop Estévez was Bishop–elect Isern’s rector at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, and the Isern family has its roots at St. Agatha Parish, where Bishop Estévez was pastor for a number of years. Bishop–elect Isern also studied at Florida International University, across the street from St. Agatha, and “was very present to our campus ministry,” Bishop Estévez said. “I truly rejoice for his ministry at Our Lady of Lourdes. I think that’s what made him a bishop — (being) an excellent pastor, an enabling pastor to so many,” Bishop Estévez said. “In this Year for Priests in which the patron is a pastor, it is the Lord sending a message: Priests are fundamentally for the care of souls. And that’s where we need to be excellent.”
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