Financial St~,pport for tlte Cltm·clz in Texas
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world-wide charities more effectively to other mission areas m much greater need. The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 again thanked the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and expressed the hope that the people in America would henceforth be able to demonstrate their gratitude by reciprocating with even more generous contributions than heretofore. "It is a very sweet duty," it declared, "to recognize publicly the signal service which the blessed Society has rendered to the young Church of the United States. If the grain of mustard seed planted in the virgin soil of America has ... grown into a gigantic tree ... from the shores of the Atlantic ... to the coast of the Pacific ... , it is ... to the assistance rendered by your admirable society that we are indebted. "In our turn, we ardently desire to contribute to the ... good which you are doing in all parts of the globe.... The time is approaching when we shall be in position to prove to you that the Catholic people in this country do not permit themselves to be surpassed in generosity."u American Catholics contributed $333,000 in the period from 1882 to 1891 to the fund of more than $13,000,000 of the French Society for missions throughout the world. By 1901 the Diocese of Galveston had clevcloped sufficiently to dispen~c with aid from abroad. But immediately after Dallas was erected into a diocese in 1890, it had been placed on the list of the Society and received $4,000 before it was dropped in 1901. While it is true that there were sections in the South and West where aid was still welcomed and was even vital to the preservation and spread of the Faith, it is equally true that the United States as a whole had ceased to be a frontier mission. Generally speaking, the trying days of the middle nineteenth century were passed. The Chicago World Fair disclosed the incredible develop- ment attained by the whole country and the undeniable prosperity of the people. The Church had likewise attained majority. The Vatican in 1893 named the Most Reverend Francis Satolli the First Apostolic Delegate to the United States, with residence in Washington. But, if it is true that the Church had attained maturity as a whole, it cannot be denied that many dioceses still needed aid, that thousands upon thousands in the flourishing land still hungered for instruction and spiritual admin- istration, and that the work of conversion still beckoned to the zealous missionary. But no longer could the Catholics of the United States expect 22 Hickey, op. cit., 92-94.
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