Pope Francis Appoints Atlanta Priest To Charleston Bishop

ATLANTA, GA — Pope Francis has appointed an Atlanta priest, Jacques E. Fabre, as bishop-elect for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston. The move comes after the resignation of Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone, 76.

His appointment makes him the 14th bishop of the Diocese of Charleston.

"Whatever we'll be doing together is going to be to make sure we leave a church which is stronger, a society which is stronger and a society that can accept everyone," Fabre said during a news conference Tuesday in Charleston.

According to a news release from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Fabre is a priest of the religious order, the Missionaries of St. Charles (Scalabrinian Fathers), and currently serves as an administrator at San Felipe de Jesús Mission in Forest Park and as the local superior of the Scalabrinian priests in Atlanta.

Fabre was born November 13, 1955, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and immigrated to New York City while he was in high school.

He was later ordained to the priesthood in Brooklyn, New York on October 10, 1986, for the Community of Missionaries of St. Charles.

Since 2010, Bishop-elect Fabre has also served as a member of the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Finance Council, the Budget and Operations Committee, the Projects Review Committee, and as Director and Spiritual Director to the Hispanic Charismatic Renewal.

He is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French and Creole.

The Diocese of Charleston is comprised of 31,189 square miles in the state of South Carolina and has a total population of 5,148,714 of which 192,764 are Catholic.