Bishop Garcia, who turned 65 on Aug. 30, was previously the bishop of Monterey, California, a post to which he was named by Pope Francis Nov. 27, 2018, and installed Jan. 29, 2019. "Words cannot adequately express the feelings and emotions that I carry with me at the moment," Bishop Garcia began. Bishop Garcia said his own experiences with racism and religious differences "has often been heartbreaking, yet real." Bishop Garcia has served on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Communications and the Committee on Divine Worship. The 25-county Austin Diocese in Central Texas has more than 678,000 Catholics spread across 21,000 square miles and contains 127 parishes, missions and university Catholic centers.