Our Catliolic Heritage i1i Texas
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days and show their faculties to preach, say Mass, and hear confessions before he would reissue these faculties. On March 7 he inspected the Libro de Gobierno of the parish church of San Fernando and noted with regret the careless manner in which it had been kept. He, consequently, ordered Pastor Refugio de la Garza to obtain a new record book, leather-bound and paginated. In this he was to copy accurately and neatly only official records, such as circulars, edicts, decrees, and instructions from the new Vicariate and the Ecclesi- astical Courts of the Diocese of Monterrey. He next inspected the Book of Baptisms, which he declared was essential in determining the age, legitimacy and parentage of all men and women in a parish. Finding that the chaplain of the Alamo had been entering Baptisms in the parish records, he ordered the chaplain to keep separate books for the Alamo, to which he was to transfer all the records he had entered in the San Fernando registers. The date of each Baptism was to be written out for clarity. Interment records were to be kept in separate books, one for the civilians and one for the military personnel. For the latter, the chaplain was instructed to start a separate book at once. The Alamo register of marriages was found to be practically blank. Only one marriage had been recorded between November 4, 1819, and March 7, 1825. The chaplain was ordered to register every marriage and to secure a n·ew book as his Libro de Gobierno, in which to copy all edicts, decrees, instructions, and other official communications. He was then reissued faculties to say Mass, hear confessions, and preach. The Marriage Book of the parish of San Fernando showed no entries from February, 1822, to March 12, 1824. Upon inquiry, Pena learned that while the pastor, Father Garza, was in Mexico serving in Congress, Fathers Diaz de Leon and Francisco Maynes had kept a registry of their own. Pena ordered that all entries be transferred to the regular parish book and that Diaz de Leon and Maynes sign their respective entries. He then instructed Father Garza that in the future he was to turn over the records of the church to whoever was left in charge during his absence. On March 24 Pena reissued the appointment of Father Garza as pastor and granted him the usual faculties. Four days before, Pena had reissued faculties to Father Jose Antonio Valdez as military chaplain of the presidia! company at La Bahia and named him pastor of La Bahia. Pena was shocked by the state of the San Fernando parish accounts, and became angry at the administrators for having neglected their
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