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Financial Support for tile Clzurch in Texas
179
odist Extension Board; the Baptist Home Mission Society with its Church Extension Board; the Congregational Church Building Society, which celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1904, and others of similar nature had generously furnished the needed funds for expansion. The members of the new units had not had to bear the whole financial burden in their infancy. As Father Kelley beheld the struggling Catholic rural parishes on his chautauqua lectures tour, to which he had to resort to keep body and soul together, he could not help thinking about the direction which the Church in the well-established areas of the country was taking: "We are building great, rich cathedrals, beautiful churches and chapels, and embellishing their walls with costly paintings and works of art, acquiring an amethyst for a chalice or a brilliant for an already costly ciborium, while the Eucharistic God in the West and South lies in brass and is covered with tinsel. We are putting our wealth to the elaboration of already beautiful things." 23 The work of the French, the Austrian, and the Bavarian societies and how their alms had helped many parishes in their infancy came to his mind. Yet these same parishes, now wealthy, were doing nothing for the hundreds of small missions and parishes in the South and West which were in urgent need of help to survive. These small missions represented the scattered sheep crying for help. An appeal to charity had to be made in Christ's name. Driven by an intense desire to arouse interest in the plight of the many Catholic missions throughout the country, Kelley wrote a little article on life in the "shanty" chapels of the South and West. A simple story it was, vibrant with the appeal of human suffering and sacrifice that spoke, not with words, but with deeds. It found a warm echo in the hearts of the clergy when it appeared in a 1905 issue of the Ecclesiastical Review. Letters poured from the mountains, the plains, and the valleys, "Go on.... Thank God, someone has spoken at last." 2 ' l11i.pleme11,ting tlie idea. It was evident that the need for aiding the missions was well unknown to many. Father Kelley, encouraged by the wide interest aroused by his appeal, turned his mind to founding an organization to secure the e.ffective help needed. The success of the project demanded a sponsor, a powerful and influential figure who would inspire confidence and provide leadership. Archbishop Peter Bourgade
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23 Frands C. Kelley, Tl,e Stor,y of E:ttensio,,, 19-36. "'Ibid., 41-42.
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