As a little boy growing up in a West Texas town of 3,000, Joe Vasquez went with his grandparents to Catholic Mass every day.

Vasquez remembers being awestruck at the priests and their abilities to connect with parishioners.

Even then, he began dreaming of what type of priest he wanted to be.

Joe Vasquez

“I wanted to be a priest who was involved with the people, who was genuinely concerned with their needs,” said Vasquez, a native of Stamford, near Abilene. “(I wanted to be) someone who enjoyed priesthood, and that the people were able to see that joy coming through him.”

Vasquez, who is 52 and has been a priest for 26 years, will be installed to lead the Catholic Diocese of Austin as bishop. Now that he says he has become that priest he once longed to be, he seeks to master his connection to people on a much broader level.

The diocese includes 125 parishes serving 450,000 people in 25 counties, stretching from West to the north to San Marcos to the south, Bryan/College Station to the east and Mason to the west.

It includes four major universities, including Baylor, and Fort Hood, the world’s largest Army base.

“It is daunting,” Vasquez said. “Now all the priests are under my care, and I have to learn all of the needs of the area and the concerns of the people. But it also gives me a lot of energy. I want to meet as many people as I can and listen to them.”

Vasquez, who was appointed as bishop Jan. 26, will be installed as bishop at 3 p.m. Monday at St. William Parish in Round Rock. The event will be broadcast live on TV and the Internet through KVUE, the ABC affiliate in Austin.

On March 15, Vasquez will lead a Mass at 7 p.m. at St. Mary Church of the Assumption in Waco.

Vasquez replaces Bishop Gregory Michael Aymond, who served the diocese from January 2001 to June 2009, when he was appointed archbishop of the Diocese of New Orleans.

‘Good with the people’

Leaders of local parishes had not met Vasquez but said his reputation prompts them to believe he will be a good fit for the diocese.

“We are really looking forward to working with him,” said the Rev. Rakshaganathan Selvaraj, pastor of St. Jerome Catholic Church. “I’ve heard that he is very good with the people.”

Local priests meet with the bishop of the diocese at least six times a year and are encouraged to express their concerns with him, Selvaraj said.

“Priests are my chief collaborators,” Vasquez said. “I have to listen to the priests and the other laypeople to learn to understand the people I’m serving.”

Journey to diocese

Vasquez is among the country’s youngest bishops, and when he is installed he will be the first Mexican-American to lead the Diocese of Austin. There are 27 Hispanic bishops nationwide.

A descendant of migrant field workers and the oldest of six children, Vasquez went to St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston and earned a bachelor’s in theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1980.

From 1980 to 1985, Vasquez attended the Pontifical Gregorian University and North American College in Rome.

Two years into his studies there, he invited his parents, Juan and Elvira Vasquez, to visit.

Juan, who worked as a mechanic, said it was a financial challenge. But after selling tamales at $3.50 a dozen for eight months, the couple had raised about $6,000 for the trip.

“All those seminarians were people with money,” Juan Vasquez, 76, said. “I would tell them that they were really blessed. They would have cars and stuff, and I would just say to them, ‘My son didn’t even have nothing.’ ”

Joe Vasquez was ordained in 1984 as a priest for the Diocese of San Angelo, where he served at three different St. Joseph churches, according to the diocese. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as an assistant bishop at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Fighting for immigrants

He was part of a campaign to legalize an estimated 8 million immigrants in the United States, according to a Houston Chronicle story published in July 2002.

The campaign included church representatives in the diocese passing out cards advocating amnesty for illegal workers.

“As Christians, we are called on by Jesus to be strong advocates for social justice,” the bishop was quoted in the Chronicle.

Vasquez said when he was appointed bishop that he will continue to advocate immigration reform, but he declined to be more specific.

“I can’t speak to the needs of the migrant community yet,” Vasquez said.

“I don’t want to limit myself to becoming the Hispanic bishop. I have to be bishop to all Catholics in Central Texas.”

The Austin American-Statesman contributed to this report.

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