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Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
Guadalajara during his visitation in December, 1759. On his way back from La Bahia he was obliged to stop for three days at Laredo. He found the people "living like heathens, neither hearing Mass nor the word of God." Totally ignorant of the most rudimentary teachings of the church, they did not know nor understand the fundamental mysteries of our faith. After administering baptism to many, over one hundred were confirmed. The inhabitants longed for and ardently desired the comforts of religion. In the hope that the king would furnish them a parish priest, they had begun to build a chapel and were willing to pay part of the cost of the necessary ornaments. Both Don Tomas Sanchez and Don Bartolome Borrego made depositions before the bishop, manifesting the need of a parish priest and pledged to contribute one hundred and fifty pesos annually by the people of Laredo and Dolores for his maintenance. Moved by the circumstances found and the depositions made before him, Bishop Martinez de Tejada accepted the offer of the settlers to contribute one hundred and fifty pesos a year for the maintenance of a parish priest, ordered them to complete the church building, and promised to send the desired spiritual minister without delay. True to his promise, the zealous bishop sent a secular priest from Boca de Leones, Nuevo Leon, on or before December 26, 1759, to take charge of the neglected community." Although the name of this first parish priest of Laredo has not been recorded, there is small room to doubt that he was in Laredo by 1760, because in 1761, Escandon refers to him and the evil effect of his presence upon the progress of Laredo and Dolores in the following words: "The expense of the said curate who came among them has been such a burden that the people of Laredo have made no progress. It would have been quite different if a religious [missionary] had been sent there as I requested." But as early as February 29, 1760, Escandon had protested against the presence of a secular priest in Laredo, claiming that the missionary of Revilla was able to look after the spiritual needs of the settlers with much less expense than the new priest sent there by the Bishop of Guadalajara. Escandon's opinion concerning the secular priest should be taken with a grain of salt, however, because it is apparent that he was decidedly in favor of a religious from the College of '9Bishop of Guadalajara to the Viceroy, December 26, 1759. .A. G. I., .Audiencia de Guadalajara, 103-6-24, pp. 43-44. (Dunn Transcripts, 1753-1818.) In this same Expedient, are found all the documents relative to this incident summarized above.
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