By Jay Sorgi • Posted September 12, 2025

Jorge Ignacio Fernández is on a mission to increase vocations to the priesthood not only in the Philadelphia region, but also in his homeland of Cuba.

For his efforts over many years to promote vocations, Serra International has honored Fernández, the president of the Serra Club of Philadelphia, with its Missionary of St. Junípero Serra Award.

“Lo and behold, I find myself well on our way to establishing this year, God willing, the first chapter of Serra in Havana since 1959, the revolution,” said Fernández, who lives in Bucks County and attends Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Buckingham.

“For me, it’s coming back home in the name of the Lord. It’s just a true gift.”

The Serra organization, whose local chapters around the world promote vocations to the priesthood, awarded him the honor at their June convention in Kansas City.

Fernández, however, wasn’t there to receive it. He was working in Cuba at the time growing the religious life in the country where he was born.

“Your diligent and delicate work in preparing the ground for a Serra Club in Havana, Cuba, is admirable,” said Dr. Moira McQueen, past president of Serra International. “Your generosity to the Cuban people over many years through your foundation is extraordinary, and a wonderful example to us all about the importance of faith, hope, and charity.”

Fernández’s mission stems from his family’s journey from his hometown of Havana. They escaped the communist Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the mid-1960s with what Fernández called “three kids, three suitcases and three dollars.”

“We fled harm’s way. My family was on the wanted list,” he explained, because they were wealthy. “Those days were pretty ugly getting out. People were being arrested in the airport before they got on the plane.”
His deeply Catholic family came through Miami to Philadelphia and established roots in the Delaware Valley.

Later his business career included numerous ventures with Fortune 100 companies and success in real estate, but his impact on the Catholic Church in Philadelphia came in several capacities including the Serra Club of Philadelphia, to which he was invited a little more than 10 years ago. He became president in 2021.
“Serra’s focus is on religious vocations, and we’re laser-focused on supporting the seminarians and the priests,” Fernández said. “Without them, we don’t have the Eucharist, we don’t have the Mass, and we don’t have our Church.”

He also has played key roles with CARITAS Cuba, Catholic Relief Services, and Christ for Cuba, aiding his homeland where Castro for many years had attempted to make Cuba an atheist country.
Fernández first returned to his homeland about 30 years after he and his family escaped, in an effort to support the Catholic faith there.

It became an experience of overcoming great fear to live his faith and his calling to serve, as he was returning to a land still ruled by the Castro regime.

“I had the honor and the privilege to go back home to Cuba in 1998 with the late, great St. John Paul II, and it was there that I had a life-changing experience,” Fernández said.

“We landed in the same José Martí International Airport terminal where we left on that ugly day where the Russians were arresting people at the airport, strip searching. It was deja vu. I said, ‘My God, what am I doing?’

When I went to get my passport, I said, ‘Oh, my God, this is it. I’m going to get arrested.’ I gave my passport, and it was an American passport.”

Fernández said the passport agent called for his supervisor, who took his passport.

“He said, ‘Welcome to Cuba. Cuba will always be your homeland,’” Fernández recalled.

He shared how St. John Paul’s words helped him believe God was carrying him during those tense moments.

“His magic words, ‘Do not be afraid,’ really resonated with me because I truly was afraid of going back.”

Fernández has become even bolder in his calling to grow the Catholic faith in his homeland of Cuba. He has traveled back there countless times on various missions including yearly trips with the Philadelphia Boys Choir from 1999-2001, a trip with former President Jimmy Carter in 2002, and papal visits by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and Pope Francis in 2015.

He continues his mission in Havana, aiming to grow the priesthood there as he is in Philadelphia through the Serra Club.

“God willing, we’ll make an impact,”  Fernández said. “We’re inviting these young men that have a calling to respond, and the Serra Club will be there to support them.”