Fernando Arêas Rifan (born 25 October 1950) is a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church from Campos, Brazil. Since December 2002 he has been the Apostolic Administrator of the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, also known as the Priestly Union of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney. For some years before 2001 he was allied with Priestly Union when it defied the Holy See by routinely using unauthorized liturgical forms and associated with the Society of St. Pius X. He helped negotiate the reconciliation of the Priestly Union with the Holy See in 2001. Life Fernando Arêas Rifan was born in São Fidélis in the diocese of Campos, Brazil. He studied at the minor seminary of Mary Immaculate and then from 1968 to 1974 at the major seminary in Campos. He was ordained a priest of that diocese on 8 December 1974. He was secretary to the bishop in 1975-1976, diocesan consultant from 1975 to 1982, pastor of the parish of "Nossa Senhora do Rosário" in Campos from 1976 to 1986), director and professor of the "Três Pastorinhos" college in Campos from 1983 to 2002. He joined the Priestly Union of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, founded by Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, Bishop of Campos, who had refused to accept in his diocese the revision of the liturgy of the Roman Rite by Pope Paul VI. On 30 June 1988, Rifan acted as assistant presbyter at the episcopal consecration without papal authorization of four Catholic priests by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Castro Mayer. The Priestly Union reconciled with the Holy See in 2001–2002 and Pope John Paul II established the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney on 18 January 2002. Rifan represented the Priestly Union in the negotiations with the Holy See that resulted in that reconciliation. The newly reconciled Bishop Licínio Rangel was named apostolic administrator and Rifan was appointed its vicar general. To ensure the status of the apostolic administration as he had promised, Pope John Paul named Rifan coadjutor bishop of the apostolic administration and titular bishop of Cedamusa on 28 June 2002. He received his episcopal consecration on 18 August 2002 from Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, assisted by Rangel and Archbishop Alano Maria Pena of Niterói. Apostolic administrator On Rangel's death on 16 December 2002, Rifan became head of the Apostolic Administration. In his first pastoral letter,