Bishop Emeritus Edmond Carmody, center, conducts Mass at Saint Martin of Tours Catholic Church Sunday. The mass was a celebration in honor of departing Fathers Jose Isidoro Garcia and Jose Torres. The 5:30 afternoon mass at Saint Martin of Tours Church Sunday marked not only the end of the tenures of Fathers Jose Isidoro Garcia and Jose Torres, but also the end of the representation of the order by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate here in Kingsville.

The missionary was initiated on January 25, 1816, when Father Eugene de Mazenod and four companions came together to preach missions in Provencal, a rural countryside of southern France.

Since its inception 188 years ago, the missionaries have spread to all five continents eventually making their way into Texas and reaching Kingsville back in 1940.

A packed Saint Martin’s church on Sunday bid farewell to both the order and to the two priests.

“They were truly good pastors,” Bishop Emeritus Edmond Carmody, who presided over Sunday’s mass, said. “They pastored the flock here very well with kindness, love and compassion while always imitating the Lord Jesus and leading the parishioners to him and we thank them both deeply for that.”

Father Garcia, who has spent five years at Saint Martin’s and grew teary eyed during the service, expressed his love for the community as a whole.

“It has been a pleasure, a delight and a very pleasant experience, one which I hate to leave,” Garcia said. “Even when I first came on and we had the job of putting in a new roof, the people here really cooperated and have always been extremely friendly and very good to us.”

Garcia said word of his and Torres’ eventual departure from Saint Martin’s began spreading in late 2009.

“We were notified in October of 2009 that there was a possibility of us having to give the parish up in February,” Garcia said. “By November, we realized we were going to have to leave, which was not good news but rather sad, because we were not anticipating this. We wanted to be here for when Saint Martin’s celebrated its 100-year anniversary (in 2014), and I hope I will be able to come back and celebrate that anyway.”

Moving on to Saint Peter’s Catholic Church in Houston, Garcia expressed his deepest gratitude to all of his devotees here.

“The people here have been very supportive of all of the things we have asked them to do, like volunteering in the different ministries,” Garcia said. “It has been easy working in this community.”

Father Torres - who has been at Saint Martin’s for four years - echoed Garcia’s melancholy.

“I was very sad because, first of all, I could not understand why they were moving us,” Torres said. “But now that I have had time to reflect on it I think this is God’s way of telling us that our work is done here and that it was time to move on and let somebody else come take our place and continue the growth of the parish of Saint Martin’s.”

Torres, who will become a parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Brownsville, also offered his gratefulness to the local community.

“It has been a wonderful experience, we have learned a lot from all of the local people and to see the gifts of the Holy Spirit working amongst the people here through their generosity and helpfulness has been very inspiring for us,” Torres said.

“That is what makes a priest happy, when you have so many people willing to cooperate and to know they love their priests and are willing to work with them.”

Following Sunday’s mass, the congregation migrated to a banquet celebration held at Texas A&M University- Kingsville’s student union building ballroom where former President Dr. Rumaldo Juarez was the guest speaker and City of Kingsville Mayor Sam Fugate presented a proclamation.

Garcia and Torres are scheduled to leave Kingsville later this week.

Father Raul Ordonez, a diocesan priest from Colombia, was scheduled to begin at Saint Martin’s on Monday.