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Our Catholic 1/erita-ge in Texas
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Religious. Father Stephen Buffard was appointed to the office and was instructed to act as the supreme director in spiritual and temporal affairs of non-exempt religious. Provisions were made for two vicars-forane or rural deans. Father Mathew Sarry was designated for the San Antonio district and Father Augustin Gaudet, supervisor of the Oblates, for the Brownsville district. Four chancellors were named: John B. Be11aclas for Galveston, Louis Chaland for San Antonio, Augustin Gaudet for Browns- ville, and John C. Neraz for Laredo. A body of diocesan consultants, composed of the vicar-general, the archpriests, the archdeacon, the chancellors, and the five consultants was established.' 5 The growth of the Church throughout the United States had been steady in spite of the Civil War. The Second Plenary Council of Balti- more, held in 1866, had been faced, not so much with the problem of repairing war damages, as many sectarian groups had been, as with the impelling situation of providing new dioceses to take care of the constantly increasing flock. Shea gives an overall picture of the development attained during this period. "The great belt of Catholic activity and life thus extended from the Potomac to the southern lines of Kentucky and Mis- souri, and westward from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. It ex- tended northward to the British frontier. In this belt the progress was especially notable.... In Louisiana the Church held her own, in Texas the growth was great. New Mexico gained steadily in priests and churches." 46 The Council had, therefore, urgently requested the erection of nine new diocese and five vicariates apostolic. Shortly after the twin synods held in Galveston and San Antonio, Bishop Dubuis left for Europe to attend the Council of the Vatican, which was held in the spring of 1870. He made the trip in company with his old Texas friend, Archbishop Odin, who was even then seriously ill. 47 Pius IX, who took manifest interest in the welfare of the Church in the United States, interrogated Bishop Dubuis on the state of affairs in his extensive Diocese. The pride with which Dubuis recounted the progress ' 5 Synodus Genima Diocesana Galvestonensis (Ex. Typis Propagatoris Catholici. Neo Aureliae, 1869), C. A. T. 46 Shea, op. cit., IV, 715-716. 47 After the Vatican Council, Odin went to his native city in France, where he died on the Feast of the Ascension, May 25, 1870. "He ... endured most intense pain with all the serenity and piety of a martyr." Before leaving Rome, he bad obtained the appointment of Napoleon J. Perche as his Coadjutor. Shea, Defenders of Our Faitli, 126.
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