Daniel Fernández Torres

Daniel Fernández Torres (born April 27, 1964) is a Puerto Rican Catholic prelate who served as bishop of the Diocese of Arecibo in Puerto Rico from 2010 to 2022. He spent the years 2007 to 2010 as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Fernández was removed as bishop of Arecibo by Pope Francis on March 9, 2022, after refusing a papal request to resign.

Biography Early life Daniel Fernández was born into a Puerto Rican family in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering at the University of Puerto Rico. He then studied at the international seminary (Colegio Eclesiástico Internacional Bidasoa) in Pamplona, Spain. From 1996 to 1998, Fernández studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, obtaining his Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology.

Priesthood Fernández was ordained a priest by Bishop Iñaki Mallona Txertudi for the Diocese of Arecibo on January 7, 1995. He then fulfilled assignments as parish vicar, bishop's representative to the council of seminaries, rector of the Seminary "Jesus Maestro", director of pastoral services for youth, dean of the Major Seminary of San Juan, and parish priest at Our Lady of Carmen Parish in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. On April 27, 2007, Fernández was consecrated a bishop at Santa Teresita Church in Santurce, PR by Archbishop Roberto González Nieves. Bishops Txertudi and Ulises Aurelio Casiano Vargas served as his co-consecrators.

Bishop of Arecibo Pope Benedict XVI named Fernández as bishop of Arecibo on September 24, 2010; he was installed there on October 3, 2010. In 2014, Fernández sued unsuccessfully to deny government investigators access to additional information about cases of sexual abuse, claiming that the diocese had provided sufficient detail and feared that investigators would reveal the identities of those filing complaints. (In reporting this lawsuit, La Stampa added an editorial comment that the delay caused by the lawsuit and additional time given the diocese to provide documentation "threatens to prolong an endless crisis for the Puerto Rican Church".) Fernández refused to send seminarians from his diocese to the Interdiocesan Seminary of Puerto Rico when it was approved by the Vatican in March 2020, sending them instead to Spain.

In December 2020, Fernández wrote to Pedro Pierluisi, the incoming governor of Puerto Rico, about the problem of violence against women. Fernández said that ...gender ideology...extrapolates the class struggle from Marxism to the context family life...to convert relations between the sexes...into a struggle of sexual classes where the woman is always the oppressed, just for being a woman, and the man the oppressor, just for being a man. Fernández said the outgoing administration of Puerto Rico had waged war on religion in the name of women's liberation. He called for a rejection of the view that counts religion and the family among the social institutions to blame for the victimization of women in society.

Fernández published a statement on August 17, 2021, stating that a Catholic could have a conscientious objection to vaccination against COVID-19. He permitted priests and deacons of his diocese to sign letters of conscientious objection if requested to do so by parishioners. Fernández refused to sign an August 24, 2021, joint statement by the other bishops of Puerto Rico that affirmed an "ethical duty to be vaccinated" against COVID-19. The statement announced the separation of the vaccinated and unvaccinated during the distribution of Communion, and advised the unvaccinated to not participate in person in other Church activities. The bishops' statement said they did "not see how a conscientious objection can be invoked from Catholic morality" against the vaccination program.

Fernández also refused to sign a joint bishops statement on restricting the celebration of traditional forms of the Mass. At some point during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fernández was summoned to appear at the Vatican in Rome, but he refused to go. On December 7, 2021, Fernández wrote to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Fernández wrote that ...offering my resignation would be the same as declaring myself guilty of something of which I am consciously innocent, and would imply becoming an accomplice in a way of proceeding that is foreign to the Church. In the December letter to Ouellet, Fernández requested written confirmation of the resignation request. He also requested a listing of the allegations against him, including breaking communion with his fellow bishops and disobedience to the pope. Fernández declared himself innocent of all charges. He defended his statements and conduct on the COVID-19 vaccine and stated his belief that disagreement on the subject was "the touchstone that sets off all this controversy." He also stated his willingness to send his seminarians to Puerto Rico's interdiocesan seminary if the Vatican wanted it. The announcement by the Holy See Press Office, as is customary in such cases, provided no explanation for this action. In response, Fernández called his removal "totally unjust". He said he was told he "had not been obedient to the pope nor ... in sufficient communion with my brother bishops of Puerto Rico". He wrote: "I feel blessed for suffering persecution and slander."