Our Catleolic Heritage in Texas
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cared for, and orphanages were opened. Churches and chapels were built and new parishes were organized during the trying days of reconstruction when the people had to exert themselves to the utmost to readjust them- selves to a society in which human servitude was no longer a basic element. Five years after Dulmis had been consecrated and a little more than a year after the Civil War had ended, the Diocese of Galveston could boast 55 churches and chapels, 33 of stone and 22 of wood, 45 secular and 20 regular priests, 2 colleges for young men, 8 academies for young ladies, and 8 schools for boys. Ten young men were ordained priests by Dubuis that year and twelve more were students preparing themselves for a life of service. 41 Archbishop Spalding, in accordance with the instructions of Pius IX, called the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, convoked the meeting, and presided as the specially designated Apostolic Delegate. The Plenary Council met from October 7 to October 21. It has been con- sidered "the most important religious assembly ever witnessed in the United States up to that time." With seven archbishops and thirty-eight bishops present, it drew up a code of laws that gave the Church in Amer-· ica uniformity of discipline, united the dioceses more compactly, and made ample provision to care for the rapidly growing Catholic population of the country. The work was enthusiastically praised by the Vatican on September 2, 1867. 42 As a consequence, the aging Archbishop of New Orleans was obliged to call the Third Provincial Council of New Orleans to consider publi- cation of the Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore. Early in December, 1868, the suffragans of the Province of New Orleans met with Odin. "All the venerable bishops spent a week with me," he wrote. "Monsigneur Dubuis was of the number." In his conversations with the Bishop of Galveston, Odin learned with genuine satisfaction that Cathol- icism had spread much in the last few years, and, with his accustomed humility, attributed the gains to the "generous efforts of [Bishop Dubuis] and those of the priests and religious, whom he has had the happiness of joining to himself." 43 On his return to Texas immediately after the meeting in New Orleans, Bishop Dubuis convoked a second synod. He wished not only to discuss 41 Sadliers' Catholic Directory, Almanac, and Ordo for tlte Year of Our Lord 1867, 144-148. 42 Shearer, Pontificia Americana, 229-231. 41 L'Abbe J. P., op. cit., 184.
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