MARYKNOLL (SE): Sister Lourdes Fernandes died unexpectedly on July 7 in Moundou, Chad, Africa. She was 80-years-old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 56 years. She was born on 27 March 1943 in the Philippines. She had four brothers and two sisters.
From 1954 to 195959 she attended secondary school in the Philippines. In 1960, she received an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from the La Salette College of Santiago. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from St. Rita College, Manila, in 1964. Later, in 1974, She received her Masters’ degree from the Maryknoll School of Theology.
Sister Fernandes entered the Maryknoll Sisters on 26 June 1967. In 1969 she received her first assignment, to Hawaii where she taught for two years. She was then assigned to the Hong Kong-Macau Region, where she taught English and Religious Education for three years.
She made her First Profession on 6 June 1971, and her Final Vows on 27 November 27 in Hong Kong.
In 1973, Sister Fernandes became involved with Worker’s Formation Programme as well as serving as coordinator of Asian Workers Exchange in response to the influx of migrant workers, until 1991 when she went to Maryknoll, NY, to do congregational services in the communications department until 1994.
In 1995 she answered a call from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious to help rebuild the Church in Eastern Europe, heading to Korce, and later Pogradec, in Albania. She returned to Maryknoll in 2002.
In 2006 found her in Albania again where she taught religious studies and English at the Lambertini School in Elbasan City and later did pastoral work with the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Gramsh. She worked with young people, training them to be candles of faith, rebuilding the Church in their country after so many years of suppression.
From 2013-2019 Sister Fernandes was a member of the Congregational Vocation Team, in Baguio, the Philippines.
In 2022 she and six other sisters volunteered to be a new Presence Community, based in California and open for a new mission assignment. In May 2023, they were sent to Moundou, where died unexpectedly.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
A Mass of Christian Burial was be held on July 15 at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Moundou, and Sister Fernandes was buried in the missionary cemetery next to the cathedral.
