Father Rafael Garcia, SJ is a member of the UCS Province. Born in La Habana, Cuba, his mother, brother and he left Cuba in 1962 as political refugees and settled in Miami, when he was 9. After public high school, he went on to study architecture, earning his degree from the University of Miami in 1978. Rafael worked as a draftsman through high school and college and then practiced architecture on his own until 1983, a year after he had experienced a call to be a priest, entering the then New Orleans Province of the Jesuits.

After a long formation process and theology studies at Regis Jesuit college in Toronto, Canada, and ordination to the priesthood at the Jesuit parish in Miami, in 1994, Rafael was assigned as pastor at the Jesuit parish in El Paso, Texas, Sacred Heart, where he served until 2007. Those 13 years transformed his life into a greater understanding and compassion for the suffering migrant and refugee persons, and the many undocumented persons who live in the parish’s barrio. During his time as pastor, and with the leadership of a Sister of the Social Service, the parish started many social ministries, including education classes for adults, some of them in conjunction with Mexico’s education system and the Mexican Consulate.  

From 2008-2014, he served as pastor and superior at the Jesuit parish in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, he helped to develop the growth of the parish’s Hispanic immigrant community, and was involved with others in the re-structuring of an interfaith immigrant justice group (New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice). Also, funds from the Jesuits financially supported a bright, dedicated immigration attorney who went from working on her own to now being the director of an immigration law clinic that has several immigration attorneys (New Mexico Immigrant Law Center).  

From 2014-2016, Rafael served as pastor of the Jesuit parish in Kansas City, Missouri. He was able to form a team (a kind of mission band) that included students from Rockhurst University, to provide sacramental preparation on several consecutive Sunday afternoons to an immigrant rural community in the Lexington, MO area, which had not had any pastoral care for years. Children, teens and young adults received Sacraments of Initiation. 

Feeling a desire to dedicate himself more to serving migrants and refugees, he was missioned back to Sacred Heart parish in El Paso. 

Rafael provides pastoral care, mainly Mass and Confessions at the ICE immigration detention center as well as at two (of three) residential detention centers for unaccompanied minors, operated by Southwest Key. He also regularly helps at a shelter that assists paroled asylum seeking families.  

For about 10 years, he has participated in the Jesuit Migration Network of Central and North America (RJM-CANA), and is a member of El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz commission on migration.  

For about 5 years, he has served on the advisory board of the Jesuit Social and Research Institute (JSRI) which is part of Loyola University. He is presently an associate for JSRI in El Paso. JSRI supports the Encuentro Project.  

His ministry in El Paso, with the Grace of God, led him to vision and initiate the Encuentro Project, with the help and support of many others.