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Our Catleo/ii; Ii eritage in T e:xas
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hundreds of thousands of Spanish-speaking Catholics who were coming from Mexico to seek refuge in Texas during the troubled years of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Deprived of worldly goods, left penniless, yet rich in their Faith, they came full of hope to make a new start in the Lone Star State. As sincere as was the desire to care for them, it would have been impossible, had it not been for the aid of the Extension Society. In those first sixteen years, 1905-1921, there were built with the help from the Society 313 new chapels in Texas, the largest number in any State. On the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Society, Archbishop Arthur Drossaerts of San Antonio, humbly acknowledged the indebtedness of Texas to the Catholic Church Extension Society. He declared that the Society had been a true friend, for it had never ignored a cry for help. To the Archdiocese of San Antonio alone it had contributed during its first quarter of a century the sum of $215,320.53. All the dioceses of the new Province of San Antonio were consistently helped in proportion to their expanding needs. Amarillo, erected the same year that the Province was created, acknowledged gratefully through Bishop R. A. Gerken that So percent of the churches, schools, and rectories erected in his Diocese had been built in part with the assistance of the Society. Not only had the money been furnished to make possible the erection of the new missionary chapels but, in many instances, a large part of the furnishings and altar accessories had also been donated. The Diocese of Amarillo, with jurisdiction over an area of 72,000 square miles, had an estimated Catholic population in 1930 of 7,851 scattered over the vast plains of the Panhandle, inadequately served by 27 priests. During those trying first four years of its existence, it received the sum of $72,374.86. "Now that I am a member of the hierarchy, and a bishop of one of the poor dioceses in this country, I have an added reason to greet the Society on the occasion of its Silver Jubilee and express my deep admira- tion," declared the grateful Bishop of Corpus Christi, the Most Reverend E. B. Ledvina, who had been the second General Secretary of the Society from 1907 until he was raised to the new dignity in 1921. As a former secretary, he was well acquainted with the many activities of the Society, whose aid he could now fully appreciate as a beneficiary. In the 22,391 square miles of his Diocese in 1930 the Catholics numbered 247,760 cared for by 85 overworked priests. Like the other dioceses in Texas, particularly those bordering on the Rio Grande, it had ·«a large number
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