Financial S,e,p-port for tl,c Clmrcli in Texas
1 93
Modest as such aid may seem, it proved a tremendous incentive to local endeavor. The desire to build small chapels spread like wildfire. They sprang up in isolated communities, where "without other encour- agement and assistance they might never have been erected." Eloquent are the figures that show the results. From 1905 to 1921, during the first sixteen years, the Catholic Extension Society was instrumental in bringing into being 2,074 churches, schools, rectories, and convents for teaching Sisters. Each year saw an increase in their number. In 1906, the first year of operation, 36 buildings were made possible. The year 1910 saw 114 built; the number for 1915 was 153; 1917 reached a peak of 215. In the ten-year period from 1909 to 1919 there were built in the whole United States 6,258 Catholic churches. Of these, 1,722 or 25.85 percent were erected with the assistance of the Extension Society. From the beginning, the Society adopted the policy of defraying only a part of the expense rather than of assuming responsibility for the full cost of the new chapels. It. wished to make the local congregations feel that they were building their own houses of worship. This gave them a sense of responsibility and stimulated local generosity. How great was this stimulation and how much was contributed by local communities to the spread of new churches is again best shown by figures. In the first sixteen years the Society gave a total of $1,255,599.03 to help build new churches. Local congregations raised $3,766,797.09. The total value of the new buildings was, therefore, over $5,000,000. The Society had made possible 1,932 churches and chapels, 98 new schools and convents for parochial school teaching Sisters, and 44 rectories for missionary priests. The Value of the work, however, cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. What all this meant to the spread of the Faith is better demon- strated by the number of Catholics who were enabled to attend services with regularity, to receive the comforts of religion, and to rear their children in the Faith. It has been estimated that, on an average, each new building made it possible for a missioner to serve 236 Catholics. When this number is multiplied by the number of churches and chapels built, it will be seen that over 400,000 Catholics were the gainers. Catholic Churcl, Extension Society Aid to Texas to I930. From Maine to California, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, chapels and churches sprang up everywhere. But the missionary urge found its fullest expression in Texas. Here, perhaps, the need was more poignant and the help extended by the Society proved to be the greatest blessing for the burdened Bishops of the State. It enabled them to care for the
Powered by FlippingBook