Establislmzent of tlze Dioceses, I847-1948
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office was built. In addition to his work as chancellor, he was asked in 1927 to establish a parish in Houston. The zealous young priest gladly accomplished the task assigned to him and founded St. Christopher's parish in Park Place, which he continued to care for by going from Gal- veston to Houston once a week until 1941. The parish had developed sufficiently by that time to maintain a resident priest. Mindful of his seminarian days, he took a deep interest in the welfare of the seminary at La Porte, built its beautiful Kirwin memorial chapel, and helped raise an endowment for its support. He was likewise respon- sible for the $26,000 re-laying and improvement program for the old Catholic Cemetery in Galveston, which he established as a perpetual care cemetery. And all the while, from January, 1919 to July, 1945 he was the chaplain of the Dominican Sisters. Such zeal for the spread of the faith and such devotion to duty could not but bring well deserved recognition. In 1935 Pope Pius XI made him a domestic prelate; Pius XII raised him to a Protonotary Apostolic in 1940. When the new Diocese of Austin was erected, the Holy Father remembered the hardworking chancellor of Galveston and appointed him bishop. The consecration took place in St. Mary's Cathedral in Galveston on April 14, 1948, on the Feast of St. Joseph. Bishop C. E. Byrne, who had ordained him in the same church, was happy to be the consecrator of his faithful helpmate. He was assisted by Bishop Joseph H. Albers of Lansing, Michigan, and Bishop M. S. Garriga, at that time co-adjutor of Corpus Christi. The ceremony was witnessed by two archbishops, one abbot and fourteen bishops. The sermon was preached by Bishop William D. O'Brien of the Catholic Church Extension Society of Chicago, who after summarizing the growth and development of the Church in Texas during the last hundred years and giving a brief sketch of the life of the new bishop, aptly declared, "the devotion to his office [as chancellor] and to his bishop . . . has hardly been surpassed in the history of the Church in Texas.... It entitles him to any honor that the Holy See can confer upon him." 105 The new bishop was formally installed in Austin on May 13, 1948. Old St. Mary's Church, built by Father Daniel J. Spillard, C. S. C., its parish priest from 1874 to 1882, had been converted into a Cathedral in preparation for the occasion. A seventy-five year old Austin carver, Ira 105 The facts summarized here are taken largely from the account in TA11 So11IAH11 M essengn-, San Antonio, Texas, April 8 and I 5, I 948.
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