Francis Promotes Bishop Who Eliminated the Latin Masses in Strickland’s Diocese
Bishop Joe Vásquez, 67, of Austin, Texas, was appointed the next Archbishop of Galveston-Houston (1.8 million Catholics). He will succeed Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, 75.
Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, after New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Vásquez arrived in Austin in 2010. Local Catholics on social media describe him as "horrible liberal" [= anti-Catholic].
A native Texan, Vásquez studied theology in Houston before attending the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
Francis appointed Vásquez as Apostolic Administrator of the neighboring Diocese of Tyler to following the removal of Bishop Joseph Strickland in November, 2023.
Vásquez served as head of both the Austin and Tyler dioceses.
November 2024: Bishop Vásquez abolished all five overcrowded Latin Masses in the Diocese of Tyler, including in the Cathedral. Only the Roman Mass celebrated at the FSSP parish remained.
December 2024: Francis appointed Bishop Gregory Kelly to the Tyler Diocese after the dirty work …More
Local Catholic @Maxwell Edward Garrison writes in comments that "Vasquez will almost certainly be replaced by Fr. James Misko who is an implacable enemy of tradition."
Re North American College (NAC): In Rome college refers to a place where a student lives. Thus, North American College is a place where seminarians live--not where they study. Those who live at the NAC pursue studies at one of the Pontifical Universities and receive degrees from them.
@Live Mike I consider B. Vasquez part of the AB Gomez cartel, any one know if he is Opus (Ju)Dei like Gomez?
@Steve D Not as far as I know. He started off working in many parishes around Texas, all ironically named St. Joseph's, and worked his way up from there.
He also eliminated the Latin Mass in his own diocese. I have a lot of experience with Vasquez and he reveals his personality by the actions of his lower clergy. He is certainly a devious man who likes to work quietly behind the scenes.
I was the Master of Ceremonies of the Latin Mass in Austin for over four years. I trained several of the priests and all of the servers in the Central Texas area. In that time, the Latin Mass at the Cathedral was drastically improved, expanded, and enriched with other ceremonies. The attendance grew from 100 on Sunday (which was only Low Mass), to about 650 across two Masses on Sunday, with multiple Masses during the week and Masses on every significant feast day. The average age of the attendees was 30.
Gradually, and inexplicably, they replaced me with a dad who had no knowledge of the Latin Mass at all, and replaced the majority of the servers with his own children. Towards the end, the clergy completely dismissed me after I wrote Vasquez a strongly worded letter telling him not to abolish our Latin Masses. Apparently I was just too radical (I was trying to get our priests to say Mass according to the 1945 Missal and even bought whole vestment sets and a Missal for it). The last year the Latin Mass was in Austin, it became extremely perfunctory and a total mess. I had to attend Mass at the SSPX mission where at least they followed their own books, which isn't saying much for the SSPX 's liturgics. Every time I visited, the altar boys would constantly complain about how terrible everything was.
Vasquez will almost certainly be replaced by Fr. James Misko who is an implacable enemy of tradition. Whatever he does will be worse. The Vatican's plan is to have all the bishops in Texas be petty yes-men, so that they can then be replaced later with flaming liberals. The situation for the clergy is very bad here. The young priests we were getting were all very sympathetic to tradition, but all of them have been shoved off into tiny parishes or university centers where they cannot cause trouble. The first thing to go will be the ridiculous Latin Novus Ordo they substituted for the Latin Mass I fought for those years to make the greatest in all of Texas. What a pity.
@Maxwell Edward Garrison You did your part as a good husbandman by planting the seeds. Now you have to step back and allow what you labored so hard and long to sow and nurture in a difficult and challenging environment, to take root, and if it be the will of the Lord, to survive, grow and flourish. God’s plan is not always like our own, nor is it always what we think it should be. Often we are tested in our faith by what He allows to occur. Release the bitterness and be healed of your wounds. Let the cleansing of forgiveness wash you and make you whole. Find a good Spiritual Director to assist and succor you in your recovery. All is well. What all exactly did you say in your letter of disgruntlement to the Ordinary? Did he respond officially to your complaints?
@SonoftheChurch The whole experience really soured me. That was only a very quick summary of everything that went down. Due to the way I was treated by the clergy and a lot of things in my personal life, I do not attend church anymore or consider myself Catholic. However, I am still an ardent defender of the Catholic Faith, and continue my work in writing my comprehensive series on the rubrics of the Mass and other ceremonies, for whatever good it will do.
My letter was never openly responded to, but it was a couple weeks after that, that I was dismissed over email. In the end, I believe it was the extended quotation from Quo Primum that angered the bishop (whom I did in fact know personally, being a constant gnat buzzing around his parish). I knew that the Mass was to be replaced by a Latin Novus Ordo, when they did a couple as a trial run, and recruited me to do the training for it. I conceded out of obedience, knowing that none of them could accurately celebrate it. I was an arch-traditionalist (dare I say, a "last of the Romans"), but I still made the effort to learn the rubrics for a Latin NO.
Ultimately, most Catholic clergy are homosexual, and as a result, are quite catty and envious people. They resented the fact that I was intransigent, and could see through the charades. They resented the fact that I was the only person in the diocese that was completely fluent in Latin, that I contained more knowledge in my head of the Mass, its mysteries and significance than they could ever dream of. They resented the fact that I was more respected than they were. And they didn't care when they cut me off. I have almost no respect for the vast majority of the Catholic clergy.
I have friends in Austin and they say he was not good there. Very anti-Catholic.