Father Norman Fischer, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, passed away suddenly on July 15, 2024. He was and is beloved and his voice was beautiful and meant to always be heard.
Abridged narrative from the CWKY Project book, published 2022:
Norman attended Centre College, where he majored in Art and Psychology. Elected Chaplain of his fraternity, it was during this time at Centre that Norman heard the first whisper of God's calling. He began to explore.
His parents had different expectations for him, not the priesthood. They wanted grandchildren. So for a year, he did not consult with them. Instead, he dialogued with art and statistics teachers, bounced ideas off his brothers, and prayed and listened. Then, when he joined the Big Brother organization and mentored young people, he realized he could parent without having children of his own.
In 1995, the Diocese of Lexington accepted Norman Fischer. For the next five years, he studied for his Master of Divinity at the picturesque University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary. He was learning to become a parish priest while meeting others from across the globe, including the Philippines. The experience would change his life as he came to know more about his heritage and culture. In addition, he was the only African American man in the seminary for at least four years, so he developed an urgency to connect with the black Catholic experience. When he found the National Black Catholic Seminary Association, he joined, soon to lead. And Father Tom McQuaid, one of his mentors in Chicago, taught him about understanding one's value in a vocation with diversity. Finally, Norman found his place in the Catholic church.
Ordained on May 27, 2000, he was the first priest of African American and Filipino heritage in the Lexington Diocese. His ordination was a symbol of the universal church. African drums and Filipino and gospel choruses represented a celebration of diversity and unity and a Father Norman Fischer who would serve to heal and bring joy to those in despair.
He started his priesthood serving Lexington's only predominantly black Catholic church, St. Peter Claver, but moved to the Winchester/Mt. Sterling parish within two years. The church was in crisis, and the mission was to provide healing. Norman felt the challenge of mistrust at first, but he laughs and says kickball changed everything. He showed them his way to celebrate at church, and joy brought people back. They began to fill the pews and classrooms, and they renovated "the steeple falling on the people," literally rebuilding the parish community.
Bishop Gainer asked Father Norman to become the first full-time Chaplain at Lexington Catholic High School, where he has served for seventeen years in tandem with leading St. Peter Claver church downtown. "Father Norm" connects seamlessly with teenagers and faculty alike; his optimism and creative energy are contagious and healing.
His work at St. Peter Claver has taken a small church with a big heart and made it bigger. Raising friends and funds for a new fellowship hall, they will soon begin rebuilding a church that will seat 400 people, doubling the capacity of the tiny hall where they double-stacked chairs to squeeze them all in.
He is planning the artwork for when the church is complete. For him, art, in every form, can show the beauty of God's love.
Norman sat at the kitchen table late during his junior year of college and finished his homemade Christmas cards. His parents were asleep, and he heard a whisper in the quiet. "Come and follow me, and I will care for you." As the hair on his arms stood on end, he wrote the words down. It was then that he knew it was real.
After Norman's Deacon ordination, Father Bill Spalding, who was retired and living in a nursing home, knocked on his door. Spalding's brother had dri
