On March 3, 2020, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States announced that Pope Francis had appointed Idente Missionary Father Luis Miguel Romero Fernandez to be an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Bishop William Murphy, the Bishop-emeritus of the Diocese of Rockville Centre and Bishop Robert Brennan, the Bishop of Columbus, Ohio, will serve as co-consecrating bishops.

Bishop Romero was born in Palencia, north of Spain in 1954, and grew up in Andalusia.  He recalls as a young man seeing a monument in Huelva, a city in southern Spain, of Christopher Columbus looking at America and embracing a cross.  “At that time I did not imagine that my life would be a replica of it — look at America and embrace the cross,” said Bishop Romero.

While studying Philosophy and Theology at the International Seminary of the Idente Missionaries, then Father Romero also completed bachelors and masters degrees in Biological Science at the University of Seville.  He continued his education with bachelors and masters degrees in Philosophy and Letters from Autonomous University of Madrid and a doctorate (equivalent to a Ph.D.) in Medicine at the University of Saragossa.

Bishop Romero was ordained on September 11, 1981, in Tenerife, Spain, and served in spiritual and academic roles in Spain, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.  He was a university professor and administrator.  Bishop Romero was the chancellor and rector-chancellor of the Private Technical University of Loja, Ecuador (Universidad Tecnica Particular De Loja), which is a Catholic university under the administration of the Idente Missionaries.  The mission was to operate the university under the guidelines of the Catholic Church for Catholic universities, and under the charism of the Idente Missionaries.  Currently, UTPL is one of the top universities in Ecuador.

In addition, Bishop Romero was the director of the University Pastoral (campus ministry) and Religious Sciences Department of the Bolivia Catholic University in La Paz, Bolivia.  He was also the adjunct director of the Religious Sciences Department at the Bolivia Catholic University.  He was the pastoral assistant (Chaplain of Campus Ministry) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (St. Joaquin Campus), Santiago, Chile.  Bishop Romero also served as director of the University Pastoral Department (Campus Ministry) in the Diocese of Cadiz, Spain.

Bishop Romero has been published in numerous publications and has presented at conferences in the fields of biology, philosophy of science, ethics, theology, distance education and university management.  He has held leadership roles in the Idente community and has also served as pastor of parishes in Bolivia and Chile. In 2014, the Idente Missionaries were entrusted to administer Our Lady of Loretto parish, Hempstead, with Bishop Romero as pastor.  The Idente Missionaries also administer Saint Luke Parish in Brentwood.

The Institute Id of Christ the Redeemer, Idente Missionaries, is a Catholic congregation founded by Fernando Rielo in 1959 on the island of Tenerife, Spain.  The congregation has religious men and women, as well as married missionaries.