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Texas Mission Council

2023 Speaker Bios

Don McCrabb is a pastoral theologian who taught for the Catholic Leadership Institute, the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (Dominican House of Studies), and the Catholic University of America.

He served in senior leadership positions for the Catholic Youth Foundation USA, the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and the Catholic Campus Ministry Association. Don McCrabb has extensive experience with Catholic organizations having provided consultation services to the Catholic Apostolate Center, the University of Dayton Campus Ministry, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Saint Bonaventure University, and Sienna Heights University.  He serves as Executive Director of the United States Catholic Mission Association of which the Texas Mission Council is now a proud member.

He is a published author with articles in the NCEA Seminary Journal, Bible Today, and the Journal of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association. He and his wife Barbara co-authored Rise, Take the Child – Reflections on the Vocation of Adoption (Visual Dynamics Publishing, 2015). They have three sons, three grandchildren, and are active parishioners of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington, D.C. 

 

 

Deacon Tom and Mary Jane Fox had a re-awakening of their Catholic faith in the 1980s. While on a trip through the Holy Land, they were directed by a local priest to take a silent walk along the Sea of Galilee. There, Jesus unmistakably spoke to them each.

In September 1986, Deacon Tom and Mary Jane Fox left their respective careers in hotel management and the travel industry to work full-time for St. Matthew Catholic Church. For the first seven years, their main ministry was door-to-door home visitation; in the first few years, they visited over 10,000 families. They also helped establish other outreach ministries at St. Matthew.  Tom was ordained to the permanent Diaconate in August 1988. 

In 1993, they founded Pilgrim Center of Hope, an Evangelization Apostolate to guide people to Christ and the Church through evangelization outreach, media productions, conferences, and pilgrimages.  Tom and Mary Jane’s mission has included travel to parishes in California, Kansas, Louisiana, Mexico, and within Texas to give presentations on their ministry experiences, Parish Missions and on Door-to-Door Home Visitation Outreach. They assisted the pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Belize City, Belize, in a parish-wide evangelization effort.

Their ministry of pilgrimages has led them to Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and Turkey. Their specialty (and dearest to their hearts) is the Holy Land, having traveled there more than 61 times since 1986.

Their ministry work has been featured in five nation-wide Catholic periodicals and on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) show Living His Life Abundantly in 1995 on the video I Am the Bread of Life, produced by Stepstone Productions, Inc. In February 2008, they received the Catholic Television of San Antonio (CTSA) Leadership Award. In March 2011, they received Guadalupe Radio Network‘s ’Pescadores de Hombres‘ (Fishers of Men) Award. They were invested into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem in 2011.

 

Most Rev. Gary W. Janak was born in El Campo, Texas on March 22, 1962.   He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Victoria in Texas on May 14, 1988.  While serving in parish ministry, he participated in several mission trips to Nicaragua and Guatemala, which has left a lasting impression on him. 

He holds degrees in canon law, theology, and counseling and is a licensed by the State of Texas as a professional counselor.  In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, he served the Diocese of Victoria as chancellor, vicar general, coordinator of the Diocesan Missionary Cooperative, and was the executive director of the Emmaus Center, the diocesan counseling and spiritual direction center. 

On February 15, 2021, Pope Francis appointed him as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of San Antonio.  Ordained to the episcopacy on April 20, 2021, Bishop Gary serves the archdiocese as Chancellor, Vicar General, and Episcopal Vicar for Vocations and Priestly Formation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marcel LeJeune is the President and Founder of Catholic Missionary Disciples. As a Catholic evangelist, international speaker, and award-winning author, Marcel loves to share his greatest passion - helping others come to know the love of Jesus and how to share that love with others.

Marcel served as the Associate Director of Campus Ministry at St. Mary's Catholic Center at Texas A&M University for 11 years, the largest campus ministry in the country. Previous to that position, he was the Director of Campus Ministry at St. Elizabeth's University Parish at Texas Tech University. He holds a Master of Theological Studies, specializing in Pastoral Theology.

He is the author of four books and a contributor to several others. Marcel has written articles for national Catholic magazines, newspapers, and websites. He is a regular guest on Catholic Radio and TV. His most recent book is "The Contagious Catholic: The Art of Practical Evangelization" (Ascension, 2020). His book, " Cleansed: A Catholic Guide to Freedom From Porn" (Pauline, 2016) was a 1st place winner in the Catholic Press Association's book awards.

The most important part of his life, and his vocation, is being a husband and father. Marcel and his wife, Kristy, have five children. 

Taylor Garcia recently graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Speech Pathology.  She attended her elementary years of school at St. Matthew’s Catholic School.  For high school, she earned her diploma at Winston Churchill High School.

While at UT, she got involved with FOCUS, a ministry to college students.  She was impressed by their work and, upon graduation, made a two-year commitment to become a missionary in college and did a training in Ave Maria, FL.  She started her ministry at Texas State University in San Marcos.  Missionaries are required to fund raise their costs by meeting with individuals and speaking to church groups for monthly donations.  During the course of their ministry, they lead students through bible studies, walk with them in discipleship, and arrange mission trips for students at the schools where they serve.  She works with five other FOCUS missionaries.

Sister Ursula Herrera, OSB was born in Brady, Texas, an old farming and ranching town. There were 8 children in her family, and their family was remarkably close. The family moved to Boerne when she was 2 years old. As a teenager, she was very involved in her youth group and Sodality. Father Hilsher would take the teens to church at the convent and that is how she got to know the sisters and decided to join them.
After attending high school at the convent, Sister Ursula attended college and graduated with her BS in nursing from the UT Health Science Center School of Nursing in San Antonio. She worked at St. Benedict’s Hospital and Nursing Home, as well as assisting women with food, clothing and help against abuse in San Antonio. Sister also worked at Santa Rosa Hospital Downtown, and then Santa Rosa North West Hospital in the rehabilitation unit.
In 1996, Sister Ursula was called to Eagle Pass, Texas to begin a border ministry. Caridad de Corazón, (Charity of the Heart), was established in Eagle Pass, Texas in 2000 in response to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised living in communities near the Texas/Mexico Border. The Sisters purchased a home with serves as a Mission House for volunteers who serve alongside Sister Ursula in the region. In addition to directing the Caridad ministry, Sister Ursula worked at the Maverick County Hospital District in Eagle Pass. In October 2018, after 45 years in the medical field, she retired from her position as Diabetes Management Specialist.

Sister continues to serve as Director of the Caridad ministry, welcoming many volunteer groups and youth groups to the Mission House each year to do missionary/volunteer work on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border. She coordinates these mission groups and projects. Sister also provides aid to five local orphanages, brings food to two soup kitchens, helps at a community center, and works with a scholarship program in Piedras Negras to help better children’s lives through education. In 2018, Sister began a collaborative ministry on the border, assisting in housing immigrants at the Mission House until they can move on once their families can assist in their transportation needs.
Sister Ursula happily recalls her mission work in the Yucatan, where she taught women to sew, and served as a nurse and translator. She says that experience is “Probably why I continue my mission work on the border. I have a mission heart.”

 

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear. —1Peter 3:15