Our Catliolic Heritage i11, Texas
checked off the list of the European mission societies m 1912 after it became the Diocese of Corpus Christi. The particular reason for the aid given so long to the Vicariate of Brownsville is, as appropriately pointed out, that the large number of Spanish-speaking Catholics in the area "had not become accustomed to do much directly for the sustenance of the priests and the churches.... These districts needed regular quotas from the mission societies that the priests might be sustained in the arduous task of preserving the faith and that they might keep up the churches already in existence besides providing for new houses of worship." 10 The Church in America having grown partly self supporting by 1881 had begun to contribute more generously to the French Missionary society for the Propagation of the Faith to help carry on the good work through- out the rest of the world. Units of the Society, established in almost every diocese in the United States since 1832, had steadily increased their membership, and the alms they sent to the central Lyons-Paris treasury had grown from a few thousand dollars to the not inconsiderable sum of $121,000 in the decade 1872-1881. American Catholics by the end of this period had put back into the coffers of the French Society almost 20 per cent of the amount that the Society had given the various poor dioceses in the United States. 21 Full maturity was attained by the Church in America in 1891. The founding of the Catholic University of America in 1889 significantly proclaimed the new status. Only the West, and some isolated sections in the South, were entitled to be considered missionary territory still in need of outside aid to maintain themselves and spread the Faith. The total charities received from abroad in this decade ( 1881-1891) amounted to almost $700,000, a large sum in itself, but actually less than 4 percent of the total disbursement of the missionary societies. The Church in the United States was fast showing its capacity to take care of its own needs. The mission societies of Europe, fortunately, were about to be relieved of the American mission burden and left free to extend their 20 Roemer, op. cit., I 7 4. It has been consistently assumed that the Church in the Spanish colonies exacted enormous sums from the faithful. The facts reveal that the natives contributed very little either directly or regularly for the maintenance of the Church and became accustomed to taking for granted that the expense of spiritual ministrations would be met somehow by someone else. It is still the prev- alent attitude of the Spanish-speaking people of the Southwest. 21Roemer, op. cit., 176.
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