Father Gabriel Garcia, OFM, Appointed Vocations Director

Amarillo—Bishop Patrick J. Zurek has announced that Father Gabriel Garcia, OFM, parochial administrator of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Dumas, has been named Vocations Director for the Diocese of Amarillo, effective Monday, Aug. 15.
 
Father Garcia replaces Father Scott L. Raef, rector of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Amarillo, who has been Vocations Director since November 2008.
 
A member of the Franciscan Order, Father Garcia, 48, was assigned to St. Laurence Church, Amarillo on July 2, 2011 and appointed Parochial Administrator on Dec. 22, 2011. He was appointed Parochial Administrator at Sts. Peter and Paul Church on Sept. 1, 2012.
 
A native of Tampico, Mexico and raised in Monterrey, Father Garcia was ordained to the priesthood on June 29, 1999 in Jerusalem. He served in parishes in the Diocese of Monterrey and also in Honduras. Prior to those assignments, Father Garcia served in the general administration of the Franciscan Order for six years in Rome.
 
Father Raef, 48, is an alumni of Alamo Catholic High School (now Holy Cross Catholic Academy), Amarillo. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 23, 1994 and has served the Diocese of Amarillo at parishes in Pampa, Spearman, Gruver, Umbarger, Tulia, Kress, Dalhart, Texline and Amarillo.
 
Father Raef has also served as Diocesan Director of Youth Ministries and as Director of the Catholic Student Center at West Texas A&M University, Canyon. He began his stint as Diocesan Vocations Director on Nov. 24, 2008.

Father Raef was appointed Rector of St. Mary’s Cathedral on Oct. 1, 2013.