Establisltmcnt of tltc Dioceses, 1847-1948
141
The recommendation of Heslin, it seems, obtained for him the appoint- ment as Bishop of Dallas on December 22, 1890. Monsignor Brennan was consecrated in the Cathedral at Erie on April 5, 1891, by Bishop Tobias Mullen of Erie, with Bishops Thomas McGovern of Harrisburg and Richard Phelan of Pittsburgh as coconsecrators. Shortly after the cere- mony, Bishop Brennan set out for Texas. He arrived in Dallas at the end of April and was duly installed in St. Patrick's Church early in May, 1891. The new Bishop, barely thirty-six years old, was endowed with a dynamic personality, the gift of eloquence, and zeal to spread the Faith. He had little difficulty in winning the immediate approval and goodwill of his flock and all the people. The Memphis Catholic Journal was enthusiastic in its praise of the young prelate. "Dr. Brennan is one of the most scholarly and zealous prelates in America," declared the editor. "For years he studied in the leading seminaries of Germany and France, always carrying off the honors of his class. Although an Irish- man, he speaks German as fluently as English, French like an educated Parisian, and Italian as correctly as English; as a linguist, he has few superiors...." 76 The conditions that greeted Bishop Brennan upon his arrival were far from encouraging. Dallas was in the grip of a local depression following an expansion boom. Father Blum, pastor of Sacred Heart, desirous of improving his church, had purchased, shortly before the Bishop came, an excellent piece of property on the corner of Ross and Pearl for $30,000, intending to pay for it by selling the old location on Bryan and Ervay. But the boom had broken just before Bishop Brennan's arrival, with the result that the young prelate found his pro-Cathedral encumbered with this staggering debt, besides a mortgage of $2,500 on the new but unequipped orphange, still unopened to the public. The impatient and apprehensive creditors rushed to the new Bishop and not only pressed him for an early settlement, but also threatened foreclosure. Undaunted, Bishop Brennan explained his difficulties and his needs to the people with courage and prayed to God for relief. Setting himself resolutely to the heavy task before him, he directed his energies immediately to the improvement of his young and destitute Diocese. No place was too far away for him to visit; no straggling village too insignificant for him to notice; no audience too poor or illiterate for him to address. Before the year was out he started the publication of The Texas Catholic, the first newspaper of its kind in all Texas. Whenever
16 The Catholic Journal, Memphis, August 23, 1891.
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