Published on Tuesday, 17 March 2015 18:50 | 
Written by Peter Finney Jr.
Written by Peter Finney Jr. 
Bishop-elect Fernand (Ferd) Joseph Cheri III has been singing most of his life.
When he was just 3 years old, his mother Gladys recalls little Ferd, the first boy among her seven children, belting out a tune in their house on St. Anthony Street in New Orleans.
And now that he is to become auxiliary bishop of New Orleans with a Mass of Ordination March 23 at 2 p.m. at St. Louis Cathedral, Bishop-elect Cheri is still singing – this time, a song of thanksgiving.
“The experience of becoming a bishop – and how people are reacting to it – I feel like I sang a solo that became the community’s prayer,” said Bishop-elect Cheri, 63, who grew up in Epiphany Parish and later moved to St. Leo the Great Parish when his parents and their seven children migrated to the north side of St. Anthony Street near Dillard University.
“Everybody is blessed, everybody receives a blessing and everybody is excited about the blessing,” Bishop-elect Cheri said. “I think a lot of people have claimed this as their ordination.”
Speechless at news
The announcement came out of the blue Jan. 12 when Archbishop Gregory Aymond publicly introduced the man whom Pope Francis had named to become the 11th auxiliary bishop in the history of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
No one could have been more surprised, however, than the self-effacing Franciscan priest was on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014, when he picked up the phone in his campus ministry office at Quincy University, a 1,300-student school run by the Franciscans in rural Illinois, about 135 miles northwest of St. Louis.
Father Cheri had just completed a prayer service for athletes at Quincy when he went to his office to check on a few messages and finish some preparations for his spring semester as director of campus ministry when the phone rang.
“It was the apostolic nuncio (Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò),” Bishop-elect Cheri said. “He said his name real quickly, and he said, ‘Pope Francis has appointed you auxiliary bishop of New Orleans.’
“And I said, ‘Who is this?’”
When Archbishop Viganò repeated his name, Father Cheri, still a bit incredulous, asked, “How do you spell it?”
“He must have thought I was a complete fool because I was totally surprised,” Bishop-elect Cheri said. “It’s not every day you get a call from the apostolic delegate. So, he said his name again and he asked, ‘Well, what do you have to say?’ And I said, ‘Well, can you give me some time?’ I was real surprised. He said, ‘Well, it’s the weekend, so I’ll give you until Monday. … But don’t tell anybody.’
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