Austin’s New Bishop

Rocco can knock out the words faster and with a nicer flare than I can, so I’m going to throw you over to him to read the skinny on our new bishop.

Bishop Vasquez is the fifth bishop of Austin, three of whom were priests of Galveston(/Houston), of which two of them were Auxiliary Bishop at the time they were appointed to Austin. The third had already been named Bishop of Beaumont before being appointed to the Lone Star State.

Of our five bishops, four of them were already bishops. Our first bishop, Bishop Louis Reicher, was the first to be ordained after his appointment.

Bishop Vasquez, 52, is the second-youngest bishop of Austin, following his immediate predecessor, now-Archbishop Greg Aymond who was 51 when he succeeded Bishop. John McCarthy.

I’ve personally participated in a couple of Masses celebrated by our new bishop; both in Spanish at St. Stephen’s Parish in Central Houston. If I remember correctly, their parish priest was either deported or couldn’t get a visa to enter the U.S. from Mexico, so he celebrated all of their Sunday Masses until the paperwork cleared up.

Congrats to Bishop Vasquez. He will be in our prayers!

[Ed. Note: The series of posts that were started last night regarding the shifting direction of my life will continue tonight with additional posts tomorrow and Thursday. They’ll each go online around 6:00 p.m. Central.]