Our Catholic Heritage, Volume VII

Establishment of tlec Dioceses, 1847-1948

157

of the new metropolitan the pallim11- 96 emblem of his new dignity and authority, whose glorious symbolism Bishop Byrne of Galveston glow- ingly explained in his sermon. After the investiture, the new archbishop declared that San Fernando Cathedral had never witnessed such a scene as this. "I see gathered around me four archbishops, fourteen bishops, a host of abbots and monsignori, including the special representative of His Eminence Cardinal Hayes, and hundreds upon hundreds of clergy, the high dignitaries of state, county, and city, in addition to my innumerable friends." At the banquet given in the Menger Hotel after the investiture, Gov- ernor Dan Moody, who had been unable to attend the reception the evening before, publicly congratulated the new archbishop and the Church on its choice. Brigadier General Paul D. Malone spoke on "Our Country and Our Flag." Archbishop Drossaerts pontificated for the first time after receiving the palliwm on Thursday, February 17. Arrangements were made in the Municipal Auditorium for 6,000 school children to attend. A choir of 1,500 from all the colleges, academies, and parish schools under the direction of Reverend James Lockwood sang the Missa de Angelis. San Antonio had become the See of a new ecclesiastical province and San Fernando, the church of the first permanent European settlers of Texas, had been raised to the dignity of a Metropolitan Church.* The Diocese of Amarillo. The same day that the Vatican raised the Diocese of San Antonio to the dignity of an Archdiocese and created a new ecclesiastical province, the Pope issued another Bull erecting the Diocese of Amarillo. The proper distribution of Catholic jurisdictional units contributes greatly to the "spiritual good of the Faithful of Christ, 96 The paUiums is a band of finely woven virgin wool about two inches wide worn over breast and shoulders. It is decorated with six crosses which fall one each on breast and back, one on each shoulder and one on each of the two pendants. The pallium is worn over the chasuble. The wool of which the palliu,n is made comes from lambs presented (two annually) by the canons of St. John Lateran on the Feast of St. Angus (January 21) to the Pope who blesses and gives them to the nuns of St. Cecilia. At Easter these lambs are shorn and the wool given to the Holy Father for palliums, which are blessed and finished and placed in a silver urn, kept near the tomb of St. Peter. Most Reverend C. E. Byrne, Bishop of Galveston, "Installation Sermon," Tl,e Southern Messe11ger, February 17, 1927. 96aArcbbishop Drossaerts died September 8, 1940 1 and was succeeded b~· the Most Reverend Robert E. Lucey, S.T.D., who had served as Bishop of Amarillo, from February 10, 1934 to January 23, 1949 1 ,vhen he was named Archbishop of San Antonio.

Ii ..

i

Powered by