TUCSON, Ariz. - Memorial services are planned for Father Raúl Alberto Valencia Garcia, who died at age 60 in a Feb. 7 wreck on Interstate 19.
After a 10 a.m. Tuesday funeral Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Nogales, Ariz, a 1:30 p.m. Tuesday funeral Mass was planned in Tucson at St. Augustine Cathedral, 192 N. Stone Ave.
Valencia Garcia will be buried at Holy Hope Cemetery at 3 p.m. at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Ordained as a priest in 2003, Valencia Garcia served as pastor at St. Monica Parish in Tucson since 2011. He had previously been assigned to St. Jude Thaddeus in San Luis.
Valencia Garcia was born in Nogales, Son. on July 28, 1959. He attended school at Colegio Fray Pedro de Gante School, and then the Instituto Technologico de Nogales, Son. from 1976 to 1979. Valencia Garcia went on to study at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico from 1980 to 1985.
He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery, (DDS) from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara and operated his own general dentistry practice for 11 years in Nogales, Son. from 1986 to 1997.
In 1997 he began studying to become a priest and was ordained in the Diocese of Tucson on June 7, 2003.
Valencia Garcia is survived by his mother, Norma Garcia, and five siblings: Lourdes Reyna; Edmundo Valencia Garcia; Denisse Mogollon, Yemille Garza and Maritza Mayer.
In a Facebook post from St. Christopher Catholic Church, Bishop Edward Weisenburger of the Diocese of Tucson said Valencia Garcia was on the way to visit his family when he was killed in a two-vehicle wreck at kilometer 78 on Intersate 19.
