It was with great enthusiasm that our congregation of the Missionaries of Saint Charles has received last February 22nd the announcement that Rev. Jacques Fabre, CS was appointed the new Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina.

Bishop Jacques Fabre was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on November 13, 1955.

As a young man he migrated together with his family to Brooklyn, NY. In 1978 he entered the Scalabrinian House of Studies at Jamaica, Queens, NY, and attended college at St. John University in Queens.

In 1981- 1982 he made the Novitiate in Guadalajara, Mexico.

He was then assigned to the Scalabrini House of Studies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and studied in the Toronto School of Theology at Saint Michael’s College.

He was ordained priest in Brooklyn, New York, on October 25,1986, by Bishop Wilton Daniel Gregory, who at the time was Auxiliary Bishop in Chicago.

Fr. Jacques was assigned to our Province and his first destination was as Parochial Vicar at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, in Immokalee, Florida, from 1986 to 1990, serving mostly Latin American and Haitian farm workers.

In 1991 he was assigned as Chaplain of the Haitian Refugees in the US base of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

From 1992 to 2004 he ministered to Haitian emigrants in the Dominican Republic, as Coordinator of the Haitian Pastoral Center. He was the Administrator of the parish of N.S. de la Caridad del Cobre, Quisqueya, in the diocese of San Pedro de Macoris, serving especially Haitian migrants working in the sugar cane plantations. He opened a Medical Center and a Laboratory to process water. He organized a systematic service for the Haitians living in the small villages, the “bateyes”, isolated inside the sugar cane plantation, delivering to them purified water and meals.

From 2004 to 2006 he studied at the Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI) in Rome and obtained a Master of Human Mobility.

In 2007 he was assigned to the Archdiocese of Atlanta, GA, where he began our Scalabrinian presence. The Archbishop of Atlanta, Wilton Daniel Gregory, appointed him Administrator of Mission San Felipe de Jesus, where Fr. Jacques has been ministering to Latin American immigrants. He was able to form a vibrant community and was responsible for the construction of parish structures. He also formed part of Archdiocesan committees while he was in Atlanta.

We want to congratulate new Bishop-elect Fabre for his hard work and commitment while he was with us, and we want to insure him of our prayers in this new calling to be the Pastor in the diocese of Charleston.

May the migrant Christ brings you wisdom and fortitude in this new undertaking.