Deacon Harvey Balcer

Deacon Harvey was born March 23, 1941 in Bay City, Michigan. He attended Sacred Heart Minor Seminary through high school and for his first year of college. In 1961 Deacon Harvey join the U.S. Air Force and served as a Management Industrial Engineer for 20 years. He retired from the Air Force and continued with a professional career at USAA for another 20 years, also as an Industrial Engineer. Following his retirement form USAA, he discerned that the Lord was calling him to the serve the Church as a permanent deacon. In May of 2007, he was ordained by Archbishop Jose Gomez for the Archdiocese of San Antonio and assigned to Good Shepherd and Immaculate Conception.

Deacon Elmer Fernandez

Deacon Elmer T. Fernandez emigrated from the Philippines in 1985 and lived in Fort Washington, Maryland for 23 years and presently residing with his family in Cibolo, Texas. His educational background includes 4 years of industrial engineering and 2 years of interior design. Deacon Elmer spent most of his working career having worked 22 years for the United States Postal Service in Virginia. In 2000, he entered the Permanent Diaconate program of the Archdiocese of Washington and was ordained on June 3, 2006. In 2008 he moved to Cibolo with his family and has served here at the Church of the Good Shepherd and Immaculate Conception Mission Church ever since. Deacon Elmer is married and has 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

Deacon Lorenzo Salazar

Deacon Lorenzo and his wife Tonia recently relocated from Midland, Texas to be closer to their daughter who moved to the San Antonio area. Both Deacon Lorenzo and his wife were raised cradle Catholics and we both graduated from Lamesa High School, in Lamesa, Texas in 1987 and 1988 respectively. I went off to serve in the U.S. Navy from 1988-1992 and we met in Lubbock after I came home and as they say, the rest is history. We received the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony on July 31, 1999 at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lubbock, Texas and the year after we had our only child Alyssa in August 2000. He was ordained under the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II, for the Diocese of Lubbock at Christ the King Cathedral in Lubbock, Texas on January 22, 2005, by Bishop Placido Rodriguez, C.M.F. (Retired). I was assigned to serve at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lubbock until we moved to Midland, Texas area around 2010-2011. We were incardinated into the Diocese of San Angelo around 2012 and served at St. Stephens Catholic Church until our recent move in July 2022. As of January 1, 2023, Deacon Lorenzo was assigned to serve here at Good Shepherd and Immaculate Conception.

Deacon James L(Larry) Lindsey – Business Administrator

Deacon Larry Lindsey has a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology from Texas Tech University and has been our Business Administrator since April, 2019.  He retired from the US Postal Service in January, 2018 with 40+ years of service and currently serves as a Deacon at St. John Neumann Catholic Church.  He is married with three children and is a convert to the Catholic faith.  His Postal Service career included database management, facility optimization and emergency planning in addition to dealing with budget issues and contractors.

Justine Hernandez - Administrative Assistant

Justine is a convert to the Catholic faith. After working ten years in the Church at St. Pius X Church in San Antonio, and St. Joseph - Honey Creek in Spring Branch, Justine became the Administrative Assistant of Church of the Good Shepherd and Immaculate Conception Mission. She has been married to the love-of-her-life, Bert Hernandez, since 2004. They have 2 dogs: Aquinas and Max. Justine enjoys volunteering to serve the youth of the parish.

Lorina Hoffmann - Immaculate Conception Director

Lorina is a third generation Texan and the oldest of ten siblings. She is a transplant from Roscoe, Texas to Marion since 1981 and has been a parishioner of our parish since then. She is the mother of three, Jennifer, Jason, and Jackie, and the proud grandmother of nine grandchildren and two great-grandkids. Lorina has been involved in religious education for several years. First as a catechist then as director of religious education for Immaculate Conception since 2013. She now serves both communities as coordinator of religious education for elementary grades and RCIA for children. She has Level One Catechist Certification.

Lorina is passionate about her call to the vocation of Religious Education. She sees each student registration to religious education as an opportunity to meet, teach and evangelize, not only to the children, but to the entire family. She hopes that through the contact that they have through the religious education office, families will feel welcome and part of their parish family.

Bert Hernandez - Coordinator of Faith Formation Middle & High School

Bert is married to his beautiful wife Justine and they have two dogs Aquinas and Max. After graduating from high school, he worked in the automotive industry for 12 years. Bert served as a volunteer in youth ministry for 5 years when he felt God calling him to full time ministry. Bert served as the Director of Youth Faith Formation at St. Pius X in San Antonio and then as one of the Youth Ministers and Confirmation Coordinator at St. Peter the Apostle in Boerne. In 2018 Bert and Justine returned to their home parish here at the Church of the Good Shepherd. Bert now serves this parish as the Coordinator of Faith Formation for Middle and High School.

Veronica Figueroa - Coordinator of Faith Formation (Good Shepherd)

Veronica Figueroa is proud to be part of Church of the Good Shepherd and Immaculate Conception as a parishioner since 2007 and is humbled to have worked as an Assistant Coordinator for Religious Education the past ten years and now as the Elementary Coordinator of Faith Formation. She holds a Level 1 and a Level 2 Catechist Certification.  Veronica has also been part of the Children’s Liturgy team and has enjoyed bringing a desire to help children take a more active part in the celebration of their Catholic faith in the Mass.  She is a member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, Court #2621 named “Protector of Families. “

Dora Gignac - Office Clerk

Dora moved to Schertz and joined the Church of the Good Shepherd in April 1994. She married Bill in September 2013. She began as a volunteer in the office in September 2018 until becoming a member of the staff as a part-time office clerk in April 2019.

Richard Bauman - Custodian/Maintenance

Richard and his wife, Sharon, moved to Schertz in the late 1990’s. He has been a member of Good Shepherd for 20 years. Richard and Sharon began working at Good Shepherd in 2010, and continued working together until Sharon passed away in 2019. They both agreed that working for a church was rewarding in so many ways and he will always cherish those years they worked together. Richard is thankful for all the great people and memories he and Sharon encountered over the years as great things continue to come forth even after her passing.

Over the years Richard has served on the festival committee, Pastoral Council, the food bank and the usher ministry.