Fi11a11cin.t Support for tl,e Church in Texas
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tribution made by the three European societies to Texas and the United States will give a better idea of their significance. In the first decade (1822-1832) the French Society for the Propagation of the Faith gave no aid to Texas, because Texas was still under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Monterrey, Mexico. It should be noted, nonetheless, that Louisiana, to whose Bishop the preliminary survey of Texas was to be entrusted in 1838 received during the first fifty years of the French Society's existence the handsome sum of $124,160. "Establishments already founded in Louisiana would have perished without this help ... which proved itself for so many years the bulwark of the distracted Bishops of Louisiana." 1 ' The second decade (1832-1841) saw the contributions to the United States by the foreign missionary societies increase remarkably. This was the period of incredible labors for the priests and of grave concern for the Bishops. It was during these years that Texas received its first indirect help through the efforts of the Vincentians, Fathers Timon and Odin. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith gave to the strug- gling dioceses of the United States the sum of $543,591.80, while the Leopoldimm-Stiftung sent $157,820.66. The total, much greater in value than the figures indicate, if one considers the purchasing value of the dollar then, was advantageously used to help care for 240,000 Catholic immigrants, more than half of whom were Irish. Few of these newcomers were able to contribute even modestly to the support of the infant Church. The period between 1842-1851 saw the Catholic population of the United States increase from 663,000 to I ,606,000. Of the 700,000 immi- grants, 531 ,ooo were Irish and 110,000, Germans. During this decade the Propagation de la F oi of France sent to the American Bishops more than $1,000,000; the Leopoldinen-Stift,mg of Austria, $113,225; and the Ludwig Missionsverein of Bavaria, $162,829. It was during this time that Texas was raised from the status of Vicariate Apostolic to the dignity of a diocese. Bishop Odin, as Vicar Apostolic, obtained the first independent grant in 1846. Previous grants had been made to the Vicentians for their Texas missions. The Diocese henceforth was on the list of regular beneficiaries until 1901. In this fifty-four-year period the Diocese of Galveston alone received $249,000, a larger sum than was granted to any other diocese in the United States. And there was good reason, "On all sides there was a want of churches, a want of priests,
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1 'Roger Baudier, The Catholic Cl,u,-cl, in Louisiana, 313.
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