René Henry Gracida

René Henry Gracida (June 9, 1923 – May 1, 2026) was an American Catholic prelate who served as bishop of Corpus Christi in Texas from 1983 to 1997. He previously served as Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee in Florida (1975–1983) and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami in Florida (1971–1975).

Biography Early life Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 9, 1923, Gracida was the second child of Enrique J. Gracida Carrizosa, a Mexican architect and engineer, and Mathilde Derbes, a fifth-generation French-American. His great uncle was a vicar general of a diocese in Mexico. As a teenager, René Gracida was fascinated with the Jesuit martyrs portrayed in the 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. Gracida took his simple vows in 1953 and his solemn vows in 1956. He was ordained a deacon in 1958. During this period, Gracida attended St. Vincent College and Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe. At Saint Vincent Seminary, he earned a Masters of Divinity degree. During this period, Gracida got a pilot's license and rented small planes to serve parishes in the archdiocese.

Gracida and the diocese were sued in 1988 by a couple who claimed that Reverend John J. Feminelli, a diocese priest, had engaged in private "wrestling matches" with their teenage son. The couple claimed that diocese officials slandered the boy, prompting him to recant his testimony in a court case. In 2019, Feminelli was listed with other priests in the diocese with credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

In June 1990, Gracida excommunicated two parishioners who were providing legal abortion services for women, citing canon law. They were Rachel Vargas, a women's health clinic director, and Dr. Eduardo Aquino, an obstetrician. In an interview, Aquino noted that he had recently won a $800,000 legal settlement against the anti-abortion group South Texas for Life, whose protestors had been picketing his house. Vargas said ran her clinic for eight years without receiving any notices from Gracida until she was interviewed on local television.

Retirement, later life and death John Paul II accepted Gracida's resignation as bishop of Corpus Christi on April 1, 1997.

Following Gracida's tenure as bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, that diocese in 2019 released a list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse, much of which occurred while Gracida was bishop there. Gracida turned 100 on June 9, 2023, and died on the morning of May 1, 2026, at the age of 102. At the time, he was the oldest living bishop in the United States of America, and the second-oldest living bishop in the world.

Viewpoints

Entertainment In January 1989, Gracida called for a boycott of all Pepsi-Cola products because of one of their commercial series. The commercials used the "Like a Prayer" music video by the singer Madonna that Gracida and other religious leaders considered sacrilegious. Pepsi eventually withdrew the ads and canceled its contract with Madonna. In a 2018 interview, Gracida rejected the idea of excommunicating these officials, saying, “It's scandalous for the bishop to say that! They did not write the law but are enforcing it [...] it's absurd and it's idiotic.”

Works 2016 – An Ordinary's Not So Ordinary Life