Pope Leo XIV names California bishop as new bishop of Austin, Texas
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Daniel E. Garcia of Monterey, California, as the bishop of Austin, Texas.
The appointment was publicized in Washington July 2 by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S.
Earlier this year, on Jan. 20, Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, who was serving as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Austin since March 8, 2010, was named by Pope Francis as archbishop of Galveston-Houston, where he was installed on March 25.
Bishop Garcia was born Aug. 30, 1960, and grew up in Waco and Cameron, Texas. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and has three younger sisters. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Austin on May 28, 1988.
He earned arts degrees from Tyler Junior College in 1982 and University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1984, while attending St. Mary Seminary. He went on to receive a master of divinity in 1988, earning a master of arts in liturgical studies from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
According to the diocesan website, throughout his ministry, Bishop Garcia served in numerous parishes and leadership roles. His first assignments were as associate pastor at St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Cristo Rey Parish, and St. Louis King of France Parish, all in Austin.
In the mid-1990s he served in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston at St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Humble and was named the founding pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Austin, where he guided the community through its formation and multiple building projects, including the construction of a permanent church and sanctuary.
Beyond parish ministry, Bishop Garcia held several diocesan roles, including service in the vocation office, priests’ personnel board, and the presbyteral council, where he also served as chair.
In 2014, he was appointed vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Austin by now-Archbishop Vásquez. The following year, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of Austin.
In 2018, Pope Francis named Bishop Garcia the bishop of the Diocese of Monterey.
Bishop Garcia has served on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Communications and the Committee on Divine Worship. He is also a member of the board of directors for Catholic Relief Services.
The Diocese of Austin is comprised of 21,066 square miles in the state of Texas and has a total population of nearly 3.8 million, of whom 678,545 are Catholic.
