by Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Feb 15, 2021 / 05:30 am MT (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-Siller 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.