“I believe God weeps each and every time any of our brothers and sisters are hurt by our actions, words, gestures, thoughts, but also by our indifference to their struggles. We cannot stand by and say we love God and yet look away from our neighbors,” Bishop Garcia said.

He encouraged the faithful to “change the way we treat one another, especially the least among us, those who live on the margins and peripheries of our society and those who are different from us. If our church is to be one that is to grow, we must first and foremost make people feel welcome and help people to see that they have gifts that are to be honored and treasured.”

The bishop, who grew up in Central Texas and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Austin in 1988, said we gather on Sundays around the altar to seek the Lord's guidance and wisdom to become more like him.

“It is from this table, the Eucharist, and this table of the Word that we are strengthened to be Christ for one another,” he said.

Bishop Garcia reflected on the fact that we are formed by the relationships and experiences we have throughout our lives and paused to thank the people of the Diocese of Monterey, where he served from 2019 to 2025.

“I want to extend a special welcome to my brother bishops from California, whom I have been fortunate to get to know and have served with for the last six and a half years. Your presence is especially meaningful to me because it was there in California that I began to learn what it means to shepherd a local church. To you, the priests, deacons, consecrated men and women religious, diocese staff and the faithful to the Diocese of Monterey, thank you. You have shaped me and prepared me to serve in the capacity which the church is now asking me to assume here in the Diocese of Austin.

I will always carry you with me,” he said.

Bishop Garcia held back tears as he thanked Bishop Sylvester Ryan, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Monterey, for his trusted friendship while he was in Monterey.

“Thank you to Bishop Emeritus Sylvester Ryan … for your wisdom, your kindness, and your willingness to allow me to learn from you in more ways than you may realize,” he said.

By virtue of our baptism, we are called to be messengers of hope, joy, mercy and compassion, Bishop Garcia said.

“My friends, our world today is hungry for the Word of God, for the Bread of life, for the Cup of salvation. But it is also hungry for justice and mercy,” he said.

“God calls you and me to get our hands and feet dirty. He calls us to walk with people who are hurting and find themselves in situations that are very messy and complex. He challenges you and me to seek the good in each and every person, even those who have hurt or offended us,” the bishop said.

“Today, we live in a world where all too often we find ourselves fostering division, hate and angst toward those who believe different from us. We have to relearn how to have conversations where we can disagree with one another yet still be able to sit at table and enjoy each other's presence rather than looking for what we do not like in the other,” Bishop Garcia said.

“We as a church must not give in to the voices of those who want to sow seeds of hate and of division when it comes to race or religious indifference.… The hateful rhetoric toward our immigrant brothers and sisters today is shameful. We will all be held accountable [for] our actions,” the bishop said.

He reminded the assembly of Pope Francis’ words of warning that he wrote in Evangelii Gaudium in 2013: “Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping from other people's pain and feeling a need to help them as though all this was someone else's responsibility and not ours.”

Bishop Garcia asked the people of the Diocese of Austin to work with him “to make this local church a beacon of goodness, mercy, hope and joy for all who visit and all who call this diocese home.”

Bishop Garcia is the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Austin. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1988 by Bishop John McCarthy. He served as associate pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Cristo Rey Parish, and St. Louis King of France Parish, all in Austin. Then he was named the founding pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Austin. In 2014, he was appointed vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Austin, and the following year, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of Austin.