01'r Catleolic Heritage in Texas
120
Organization of the Society for t!t.e Propagation of tke F aitlt in Texas. Local units of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith must have been organized, as recommended, before the end of the year and the collection of funds begun immediately, for the 186o Catholic Almanac stated that the Diocese of Galveston had contributed $833.00 to the Society in 1858. The total contribution to the Society from the United States was $29,221.83, which would make the Texas portion for the year equivalent to three percent of the total. It is of interest to note, on the other hand, that the Society allocated $5,984.00 to Bishop Odin that year and $2,251.25 to the Oblates in Texas. These two gifts exceeded by over $2,000.00 the largest single grant made in 1858 by the Society to the Vincentians in the United States. The extent of the help given by the Society to the Church in this country during its early years has been generally ignored and is almost unknown. In the year 1858 alone the total granted to various dioceses and religious communities in the United States for the spread of the Faith amounted to the not inconsiderable sum in that day of $1 II,745.75. 22 In urging the spread of membership in the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the Diocese of Galveston, Bishop Dubuis, who succeeded Odin in 1862, stated: "Many are the blessing and thanksgivings called forth on the members of this holy society by the newly converted people of every part of the earth. Missionaries send them, as a token of their gratitude, the touching account of their suffering, their labors, and their success. The Bishops of the United States, assembled in Council, have acknowledged to them their thanks; whilst in the Old World, the Martyrs of Cochin, China have promised, with their dying breath, to remember the benefactors of the missions.... "Let every Catholic throughout the Diocese give his or her name to the pastor ... and hand in the subscription of fifty-five cents a year ... and he may then consider himself or herself a member of this meritorious and excellent good work." 22 • Odin and the Arclediocese of New Orleans. Not long after the cele- bration of the First Synod in Texas, Archbishop Blanc issued a call for the Second Provincial Council of New Orleans. When his suffragan bishops from Galveston. Little Rock, Natchitoches, Natchez, and Mobile met in New Orleans on January 22, 1860, the Archbishop was not well. 21 Tlte Catholic Alma11ac, 1860, 323-326. See note 18. W.Organization for the Propagation of the Fait/1, Galveston, Texas, I 87 5. Photo- stat copy in C. A. T.
Powered by FlippingBook