Reverend Luder Wilfredo Fernandez Panica is a native, Bolivia. He is the son of Martin Fernandez and Sergia Panica, who live in Bolivia. He received his bachelor’s degree in Catholic Studies from Marian University (Bishop Bruté College Seminary) and his master of divinity degree from Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin.

Father Wilfredo served as associate pastor of the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, Ky. and St. Michael Parish in Fairfield, Ky, Holy Trinity and Holy Name of Mary in Louisville and Saint Edward and Saint Aloysius. He has also served as Pastor of Christ the Healer (Edmonton) Christ the King (Tompkinsville), and St Joseph, Butchertown, Louisville. He

currently serves as associate pastor of Saint Patrick.

As a boy growing up in Tarija, a small Bolivian city bordering the countries of Argentina and Paraguay, Father Wilfredo Fernandez was more interested in pursuing sports than going to church. Father Wilfredo re-awakening of his Catholic faith came during his college years when he discovered and joined a Charismatic Renewal group at a local church. He was drawn, he said, to the “joyful” way in which the group worshipped.

Following graduation from high school, Father Wilfredo Fernandez tried several careers, mainly in the technical field, but none seemed to fit.

The long road to the priesthood, strewn with “joys,” “disappointments,” “excitement,” and “challenges,” began with him discerning a vocation with a Franciscan order in Tarija when he was 18, he said. After two years, he realized being a religious priest was not his path. A better fit would soon come about when he entered San Cristobal Seminary in Sucre, Bolivia’s capital city, to discern a vocation as a diocesan priest.

In 2010 Father Wilfredo moved to the Archdiocese of Louisville where he stepped back on the path to the priesthood and was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Louisville on May 28,2016.