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\n Bishop Emeritus Ren\u00e9 Henry Gracida, former Corpus Christi Diocese leader, dies
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People who worked closely with Gracida described him as a spiritual leader, a World War II veteran and a friend to many across South Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was originally ordained in 1993 by Bishop Gracida,\u201d said Deacon Michael Mantz.<\/p>\n
Deacon Mantz served alongside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve always looked up to him. I only served under him for four years, but I knew him so much longer after that,\u201d Mantz said.<\/p>\n
Mantz said he will remember Gracida as a strong leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had to categorize his leadership style, I would say that Bishop Garcia was the chairman of the board, that’s who he was. And if you met him, you know, he wasn’t somebody who would intimidate you, but you could tell he was in charge,\u201d Mantz said.<\/p>\n
Before becoming a Bishop, Gracida served as a veteran who became a priest, eventually becoming a prominent figure in the Coastal Bend.<\/p>\n
In a previous interview as part of a tribute for his 100th birthday, Gracida reflected on the why behind his calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a teacher, a healer, a friend in Jesus, a communicator of God’s will, by making his will known through his commandments and the teachings of the church, all of that has motivated me,\u201d Gracida said.<\/p>\n
During his time in office, Gracida also played a key role in expanding the Diocesan Telecommunications’ efforts in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had my radio on. I always listen to KLUX, and he was instrumental in creating that radio station, KLUX and then KHOY, I think we had that in Laredo. And he was instrumental in getting that radio station started,\u201d Mantz said.<\/p>\n
After more than a century of life, those who knew him say his impact will be everlasting.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he lived a long time, he influenced a lot of people, and you know, we were blessed to have him here as the shepherd of this Diocese,\u201d Mantz said.<\/p>\n
Diocese officials said funeral arrangements for Gracida will be announced soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bishop Emeritus Ren\u00e9 Henry Gracida is being remembered as a spiritual leader, veteran and longtime pillar in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-278998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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