Diocesan News

2025 March Edition - Respect Life Prayer Guides

VIRTUS New Safe Environment Program

 Starts July 1st, 2024

Permanent Diaconate Announcement

The Diocese of Charleston currently has 217 permanent deacons — 140 are active and 64 are retired; 94 of them are age 70 or older. The formation program for aspirants lasts five and a half years, with a new class beginning every two years. The diaconate office will soon be accepting applications for the Class of 2031

  Diocesan Safe Environment Program

The Catholic Church is committed to respect for the dignity of each human person. Acts of sexual exploitation or abuse , particularly against children or the vulnerable will not be tolerated by the Diocese of Charleston. To learn more, click here to visit the Diocese of Charleston Office of Child and Youth Protection.


In June of 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gathered to discuss the sin of clergy sexual abuse, and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was drafted. Attached is a video regarding updates to diocesan policies on youth protection. There will be coverage in the July edition of The Catholic Miscellany regarding the 20th anniversary of the charter.


Source: Diocese of Charleston

  Coat of arms of Bishop-elect Jacques Fabre-Jeune - April 28, 2022

Bishop-elect Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS, has finalized the design of his official coat of arms, and an image is attached. It features the royal palm of Haiti, the colors of the flag of the Republic of Haiti, the gold crown of the Scalabrinian order, a phoenix rising from the ashes, and a green butterfly, a symbol of migration.

 

 The motto Bishop Fabre-Jeune chose is taken from Matthew 24:40: "Whatever you do to the least of my children, you do to me." This emphasizes our call to lovingly serve all those in our lives who are most in need of our help and support.

 Meet Our New Bishop, Father Jacques Fabre

From the Catholic News Agency:

 

Pope Francis has appointed Father Jacques Fabre as the new Catholic bishop of Charleston, South Carolina. 


The Vatican announced the 66-year-old priest’s appointment on February 22.


Fabre was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In the early 1990s, he was a chaplain at a Haitian refugee camp at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has served as an administrator at the San Felipe de Jesús Mission in Georgia for the past 12 years.

 

Fabre moved from Haiti to New York City when he was in high school. After graduating from St. John’s University in New York, he joined the Missionaries of St. Charles, also known as the Scalabrinians.  Fabre studied in Rome at the Pontifical Urban University, where he earned a Master’s in Divinity and a Licentiate in Human Mobility (migration).  


He was ordained to the priesthood in Brooklyn, New York, in 1986 at the age of 30. He served as chaplain to Haitian refugees in Guantanamo Bay from 1990 to 1991 and pastor of a parish in the Dominican Republic from 1991 to 2004.


After arriving in Georgia in 2006, Fabre served as the parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s parish in Athens and Holy Trinity parish in Peachtree City.


While acting as the administrator at San Felipe de Jesús Mission in Forest Park, Fabre also served as the director of the Hispanic Charismatic Renewal and a member of the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s finance council. He is fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Creole.

 

Bishop-elect Fabre will be ordained and installed as the 14th Bishop of Charleston on Friday, April 29 in Charleston.


The Catholic Diocese of Charleston was established in 1820 and covers the entire state of South Carolina. More than five million people live within the diocese, an estimated 10% of whom are Catholic.
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