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of good but extremely poor Mexican Catholics." The assistance received had been of inestimable value in helping Bishop Ledvina preserve the Faith of these storm-tossed members of the Church. During the first twenty-five years of its existence, the Society had given the Diocese the not inconsiderable sum of $248,454.49. Bishop Joseph P. Lynch, of Dallas, the silver-tongued orator of the Church in Texas, exclaimed enthusiastically, "in season and out of sea- son, in sunshine and in shadow ... the Society [has] labored without stint of mental or physical energy to bring its holy message to those who have the will to understand missionary problems. . . . Marvelous has been the Fruit ... that has been gathered through the aid of the Catholic Extension Society ; new inspiration and courage have been brought to missionaries and people in the lonely, isolated districts." His Diocese, with an area of 52,850 square miles and a Catholic population in 1930 of 49,933, had 84 priests to look after his scattered flock. The Diocese of Dallas had by 1930 received $2n,438.50 from the Society. The Diocese of El Paso, Suffragan of the Province of Santa Fe, lies nevertheless, largely within the limits of the State of Texas. On the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Extension Society, Bishop Anthony J. Schuler, S.J., in acknowledging the benefits received, exclaimed, "Twenty-five years of unfailing and unstinted help and encouragement to our Home Missions. How glorious the record, how inspiring the story!" He was in position to know how valuable the aid had been, for his was truly a poor diocese in which a large percentage of the Catholic population was Mexican or Span1sh-speaking, who, although eager to keep the Faith, were physically unable to provide for the maintenance of the necessary churches and schools without outside help. There were 117,124 souls crying for help scattered over an area of 62,394 square miles with only 95 priests to minister to them. The difficulties that confronted the Bishop in the years of the· Mexican Revolution, when the shepherds were struck in Mexico and the flock made to flee, could not have been solved without the help received. The contributions up to 1930 to the El Paso Diocese was $77,790.78. Bishop C. E. Byrne, the grand old man of Texas, still most vigorous in 1930, eulogized the Catholic Extension Society for having labored incessantly ever since its founding, "to provide chapels and church equipment that the Faith of the people might be saved." Galveston, the mother of Texas dioceses, had been reduced by this time to 43,000
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