Editor: Bishop Garcia, this is our first official interview since you were installed on Sept. 18. How are you settling back into life in Central Texas?

Bishop Garcia: Well, it’s only been a few weeks, so I am still unpacking and still trying to figure out where everything is. I am taking it day by day and trying to reacquaint myself with the roads around the Austin area and what is under construction, etc. I am looking forward to traveling to our parishes throughout Central Texas to celebrate Mass and to be with the people of the Diocese of Austin.

Editor: As the holidays approach, what does it mean for you to be near your family once again?

Bishop Garcia: The proximity to them certainly is a blessing because I don't have to worry about getting on a plane. But the reality is that my three sisters live in three different cities, and they have their own families and friends. And as my brother priests know, the holidays are very busy for clergy. Hopefully, my sisters and I will be able to schedule some time to be together over the holidays, and since I am now so close to them, there will be more times throughout the year when we can get together.

Editor: In your homily during the Mass of Installation, you talked about the importance of walking with those who are hurting and about the need to relearn how to have conversations with our friends and family. Why is this important?

Bishop Garcia: In today's world there are so many divisions, and even in our families we find there are certain subjects we can’t even mention because things can get heated very quickly. We have to learn how to accept one another despite our differences. At the end of the day, if my uncle, my brother or my sibling was struggling, would I help them? I would say yes! Regardless of what political direction they lean or what their religion is, yes!

The family is the place where we learn how to love, we learn how to forgive, we learn how to take care of each other. The values I possess today were instilled in me by my family — our parents, our grandparents, aunts and uncles. In our case, many of us lived close to each other, so the joke was that if Mom or Dad wasn't around, there was always an uncle or aunt there to correct us.

As Pope Leo XIV said recently, the family is called “to be a domestic church and a home where the fire of the Holy Spirit burns, spreading its warmth, bringing its gifts and experiences for the common good, and calling everyone to live in hope.”

So over the upcoming holidays as we sit at the table and share food and drink with our loved ones, I hope that in our families — in our domestic churches — we will encourage and foster love and understanding because our families do influence the larger society. As St. John Paul II said, "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live."

Editor: What is your prayer for families as we move toward the celebration of Christmas and the New Year?

Bishop Garcia: As we celebrate the birth of Christ in the world — that God became man and brought light into darkness — I pray we would allow Christ to be reborn in our hearts. May we allow Christ to shed light in the midst of the darkness of our world. I pray for those who have lost hope — may we, as people of hope, reach out to them and help them to see the hope Christ offers us. Jesus came into this world to show us how to live and how to love; may we follow his example of forgiveness, mercy and unending love. Amen.