Pope Francis names Texas priest an auxiliary bishop of San Antonio

February 15, 2021 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Bishop-elect Gary W. Janak.

Vatican City, Feb 15, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis on Monday named Fr. Gary W. Janak, a canon lawyer and licensed counselor, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas.

Bishop-elect Janak, 58, is vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Victoria, as well as rector of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victory.

He will join Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Miller and auxiliary bishop Michael Joseph Boulette in leading the south-central Texas archdiocese.

As a canon lawyer, Janak has been defender of the bond for the appellate court of the dioceses of Texas, and since 1988, a judge and advocate for the marriage tribunal of the Diocese of Victoria.

He also has a master’s of education in counseling and has been a licensed professional counselor in the state of Texas since 2000. Janak is the executive director of the Victoria diocese’s Emmaus Counseling Center.

The bishop-elect speaks Spanish and English.

The Archdiocese of San Antonio serves over 1.2 million Catholics across 23,000 square miles of south-central Texas.

Janak was born in El Campo, Texas, in 1962. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Victoria in 1988, before going on to receive his licentiate in canon law from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

His assignments have included several parishes, as well as director of the diocesan permanent diaconate program, vocations director, and director of seminarians. He has been a part of the diocesan finance board since 2012.

Janak served as diocesan co-coordinator of pastoral care and outreach from 2004 to 2016, and as vicar forane of the El Campo deanery from 2007 to 2013.

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How to visit the tomb of Benedict XVI

January 7, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
The coffin of Pope Benedict XVI is prepared for interment in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 5, 2023. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jan 7, 2023 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Benedict XVI was buried in the crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica after his funeral Mass on Jan. 5.

The late pope’s coffin was interred in the former burial place of both St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII, whose remains were moved to the upper part of the basilica at the time of their beatifications.

The coffin of Pope Benedict XVI is prepared for interment in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica on Jan. 5, 2023. Vatican Media
The coffin of Pope Benedict XVI is prepared for interment in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 5, 2023. Vatican Media

After being closed for several days, from 9 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 8, the Vatican crypt, which has small chapels and the tombs of popes and royals, will reopen to the public.

To visit the tomb of Benedict XVI, first enter St. Peter’s Basilica.

Proceed to the front of the basilica and the central altar and Baldachin, a Baroque bronze canopy sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The papal altar and Baldachin as seen during Pope Francis' Mass for the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 13, 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
The papal altar and Baldachin as seen during Pope Francis’ Mass for the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 13, 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

The bones of St. Peter, the Church’s first pope, are under the papal altar in the central part of the crypt, called the Confessio.

Turn left in front of the papal altar. In front of the first column on the left, below a statue of St. Andrew, are the stairs giving access to the crypt.

Pope Francis prays at the Confessio, the place where St. Peter's bones are buried in the crypt beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, Nov. 2, 2021. Vatican Media.
Pope Francis prays at the Confessio, the place where St. Peter’s bones are buried in the crypt beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, Nov. 2, 2021. Vatican Media.

Benedict XVI’s tomb is on the north side of the crypt, on the other side of the Confessio from the stairs. On the marble slab covering the tomb is written: Benedictus PP. XVI.

Queen Christina of Sweden, who died on April 19, 1689, is buried in a sarcophagus immediately to the right of Benedict.

On the wall above Benedict’s tomb, there is a bas-relief sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus flanked by angels.

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