Our Cn.t/10/ic Heritage iu Texas
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who were aided by the efforts of the contributors to the Society, both rich and poor. Bishop Du Bourg, when informed of the foundation of the new Society and its basis, was enthusiastic, for he knew well the great opportunities it offered for the propagation of the Faith. "I do not doubt," he said, "that He who fired in you the courage to undertake it and the wisdom to outline the plans ... will also give you constancy . .. to put it into execution." He admired "the wisdom of the Rule, its simplicity, and the incalculable good which will result from it." 6 Pope Pius VII approved the Society on March 15, 1823, and granted the first indulgences to its members. The indulgences, originally appli- cable only to members in France, were extended by Gregory XVI in 1831 to the membership throughout the world. This was specific acknowledg- ment of the universal character of the Society, which was reaffirmed in a subsequent declaration on August 23, 1840. Although generally re- garded as French, the Society quickly swept beyond the confines of France, first into Piedmont, then Belgium in 1825, Italy in 1827, the United States in 1832, Germany and Switzerland in 1834, England in 1836, and South America in 1840. 7 Between 1822-1922, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith contributed to the Church in the United States the not inconsiderable sum of more than eight million dollars. Origin and organization of tlie Leopoldinm-Stifttmg. Equally impor- tant for the aid given to the struggling Church in America during the pioneer and missionary days was the Austrian Leopoldi11en-Stiftu11g, another alms society, formally founded on April 15, 1829. This Society came into being as a result of the call for aid issued in 1828 by Edward Fenwick, Bishop of Cincinnati, who was in great need of funds and of German-speaking priests for his Diocese. While in Rome a few years before, Bishop Fenwick met Father Frederic Rese, an ex-Hanoverian soldier, who had just been ordained to the priesthood at the College of Propaganda Fide. Impressed with the zeal of the veteran of Blucher's Waterloo campaign, he was delighted to secure his services. Together they had gone to Paris and Lyons in 1822 and had been present at the organizational meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, an experience that proved of great
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6 Hickey, op. dt., 29. 7 Roemer, t1p. cit., 30,
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