Bernard J. Nolker

Most Reverend Bernardo José Nolker, C.Ss.R., D.D.
Orders
Ordination	June 18, 1939
Consecration	April 25, 1963
Personal details
Born	(1912-09-25)September 25, 1912 Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Died	January 17, 2000(2000-01-17) (aged 87) Saratoga Springs, New York
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church

Bernardo José Nolker (September 25, 1912 – Januray 17, 2000) was an American born bishop in the Catholic Church. He was the first bishop of the Diocese of Paranaguá in the state of Parana, Brazil from 1963-1989.

Biography

Bernard Joseph Nolker was born in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in the Wyman Park section of North Baltimore. He was educated in the Redemptorist minor seminary at North East, Pennsylvania and attended novitiate at Ilchester, Maryland where he professed religious vows as a Redemptorist in the Baltimore Province. He studied for the priesthood at Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary in Esopus, New York and was ordained there on June 18, 1939.

Nolker served as a missionary in Brazil until January 7, 1963 when Pope Blessed John XXIII named him the first bishop of the Diocese of Paranaguá. He was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Lawrence Joseph Shehan of Baltimore on April 25, 1963. The principal co-consecrators were Archbishop Manoel da Silveira d’Elboux of Curitiba and Bishop Edward John Harper, C.Ss.R. of Saint Thomas. He attended sessions two, three and four of the Second Vatican Council and was then responsible for initiating the Councils reforms into the new diocese. The Diocese of Paranaguá is located in southeastern Brazil and the region contains semitropical forests, mountains and a maritime region. In order to reach certain areas of the diocese he had to travel by horseback or a jeep. Bishop Nolker served the diocese as its bishop for 26 years before Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation on March 15, 1989, and he became bishop emeritus. He died of heart failure at St. John Neumann Residence in Saratoga Springs, New York at the age of 87.