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Tlie Ago11y of tlie Cliurc/1 i11 Texas, 18u-1836
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the priest and to build him a house. The Deputation in Saltillo discussed the matter and adopted a resolution petitioning the Administrator of the Diocese to send the clerics needed by Nacogdoches and the other new colonies. 10 The new settlements clamored for priests; Political Chief Saucedo and Governor Gonzalez appealed to Administrator Leon Lobo to provide them, and he in turn called upon the only source, the College of Zaca- tecas, in a futile attempt to secure workers for the vineyard of the Lord. Much can be found-herein-the noticeably decreased number of seculars and regulars-to explain the deplorable situation. New mission- aries or secular priests had not come from Spain, for they would not have been admitted to the country, and the diocesan seminaries had long since closed their doors during the arduous days of the Revolution. Tlie first vicarius foranit~s. The distance, the difficulty and danger of travel and the urgency of the spritual needs of the people induced Leon Lobo in December, 1824, to appoint Juan Nepomuceno de la Pena as Vicario Foraneo de la Provincia de Texa.s (Rural Dean). Lobo was of the opinion that Pena, stationed in San Antonio, would be able to secure first-hand information, dispatch routine matters and look more effectively after the spiritual welfare of the distant and rapidly expanding flock. The Rural Dean was at his post by December 17, at which time he issued a cir- cular notifying the officials and the people in Texas of his appointment. The missive opened with the announcement that Doctor Jose Le6n Lobo, administrator of the Diocese of Monterrey, moved by pastoral zeal and the repeated requests of the Government for the relief of the spiritual needs of the people in the vast province, had in the exercise of his Apostolic Faculties named him Rural Dean of Texas. Among other powers, Pena was given the right to hear, take cognizance of, and pass interlocutory sentence in all civil cases; but in criminal, judicial, and matrimonial cases he had authority only to prepare briefs for final sentence. He could grant priests in his jurisdiction faculties to say Mass, preach, hear confessions-after passing the Faculty Exam- ination-and to say two Masses on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation if it were necessary to binate. Pefia was empowered to dispense from consanguinity in the second degree, if marriage had already been consummated, and from affinity in 10 J. A. Saucedo to Leon Lobo, October 29, 1823; Patricio Torres, Alcalde of Nacogdoches, to Saucedo, September 8; Leon Lobo to Political Chief, November s, 1824; Governor Gonzalez to Saucedo, .March s, 1825 1 Minutes of session of February 19, 1825 1 Be:ear .ArcJ,iv1t.
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