Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz ordained Fathers Wilfredo Fernandez and Sean McKinley to the priesthood on May 28 at the Cathedral of the Assumption before a crowd of about 300 people and dozens of priests and deacons.
The archbishop thanked the men’s families, noting that “our vocations are rooted in the family.”
He encouraged the men to follow the sacrificial example of St. Maxmilian Kolbe, a martyr killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II. He was transferred to the camp on May 28, the same day as the ordination, the archbishop noted. The Conventual Franciscan martyr later volunteered to be killed in the place of another prisoner.
Archbishop Kurtz told the newly ordained priests and the congregation, “We pray that you will be witnesses to Christ, using your gifts, not for your own benefit, but in the service of his people.”
Father Fernandez, a native of Bolivia, will serve as associate pastor of St. Michael Church in Fairfield, Ky., and the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, Ky.
Father McKinley, a native of Elizabethtown, Ky., will serve as associate pastor of St. Gabriel Church.