Om· Cat!tolic Heritage in Texas
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The papal Bull of appointment, dated May 21, 1847, informing Bishop Odin that he had been chosen the Ordinary of the new Diocese, and the Bull erecting Galveston into a diocese were not received until July 21, 1847. 5 Boundaries of t!te Diocese of Galveston. The bull of erection of the Diocese made no attempt to define the diocesan boundaries. At that time no one knew exactly the extent of the former Mexican Province of Texas. The best available information is found in Odin's own testimony. While in Rome in 1851, Odin was asked for enlightment on the subject. He informed Cardinal Barnabo, secretary of the Congregation for the Propa- gation of the Faith, of the difficulties he had been experiencing in deter- mining the limits of his jurisdiction. He pointed out that Texas and the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande had formerly been a part of the Diocese of Monterrey, Mexico, and that the Province (poli- tical) of New Mexico had been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durango. After the declaration of independence from Mexico the Texans had claimed as their western boundary the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source, which included on the north the major part of New Mexico and on the south the area between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, "which had never been part of Texas properly speaking." 6 "At the time of its creation as a diocese," Odin continued, "Galveston had been given for its boundaries all of Texas such as its limits may be after the difficulties [war] with Mexico have been settled." Subsequently, by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of 1848, Mexico ceded to the United States not only all the territory east of the Rio Grande claimed by Texas, but also all of Upper California, and left the problem of the Texas bound- aries to be settled between the United States Government and the new State. The Bishop had abstained, therefore, from visiting the Lower Rio Grande Valley and that part of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande claimed by Texas until the conflicting claims between the Federal Gov- ernment and Texas were settled. Odin subsequently consulted the Sacred Congregation in 1848 con- cerning the line of conduct he should adopt. Just as he was about to leave for the Seventh Provincial Council in Baltimore in the spring of 1849, he had been instructed to exercise jurisdiction "over not only that part of 5 The original Bull designating Odin as the first Bishop of Galveston has also been lost, but a photostat copy is in the Catholic Archives of Texas. 'Odin to Cardinal Bamabo, Secretary of Propaganda, Rome, September 1 8, I 8 SI, C. A. T.
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