Kollam: Reverend Joseph Gabriel Fernandez, the Bishop Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon, passed away here at 9.30am on Saturday. 

He was 97.

He was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at the Benziger hospital in Kollam.

Born on September 16, 1925, Joseph Gabriel Fernandez was ordained as priest in 1949. He was appointed and ordained as the Bishop of Quilon in 1978. He retired in 2001.

He also served as the vice-chairman of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council, chairman of the health commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI); and Chairman of the St Joseph Pontifical Seminary Episcopal Commission, Aluva.