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Our Catholic Heritage in T e:xas
For years they had labored and sacrificed, often having barely sufficient to eat, much less the money to buy a pair of shoes or a new cassock. Many, acquainted with the lives of these unselfish men, had asked the Catholic Church Extension Society why something had not been done to make life more bearable for them. These inquiries finally resulted in a decision to launch a drive to establish a missionary priests' endowment fund by starting "the mis- sionary dollar duh." Bishop O'Brien's plan was to create a fund, out of which the modest sum of $30.00 a month could be sent to those priests in the missions who were unable to meet living expenses. The grant was to entail no obligations, but only those were to receive a subsidy whose bishop certified that their application for living expenses was justified. Within a year, the Society was making-, on an average, a monthly subsidy of S30.oo to each of some 100 missionary priests. By 1930 the number of beneficiaries of the new fond for that year was 108, of whom 15 were in Texas; three in the Diocese of El Paso and four in each of the Diocese of Amarillo and Corpus Christi and the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Those unacquainted with the actual conditions in the mis- sions on the distant frontiers of our land do not realize what a boon $~0.00 a month is to a poor missionary. .s Mission School/ Endowment Fund. The rapid spread of missionary work and the increasing number of Catholics made possible, in part, by the help of the Catholic Church Extension Society, soon made evident another need. Many new parishes. as well as some of the older. found it impossible to maintain schools. particularlv for the poor Spanish-speaking chilrlren of the Southwest. In response to requests made bv missionary bishops. the Societv, had from time to time. been making- g-rants for this nurnose out of its general funrl. It was decided in JQ25 under Bishop O'Brien's presidencv. to create a mission schools endowment fund. which would enable the Society to give effective aid to poor schools in the mis- sion fielrl. The goal of the new drive was $1 .000,000.00, to be raise<l through memhershins. Qualifications for membership were to be that rlonors be women and contribute Sr ,000.00 during- their lifetime. In memorv of a deceased member a $5.000.00 memorial fund was to be set up by the Societv. The interest therefrom was to be turned over to the several missionarv bishops. each of whom was to have the rig-ht to disburse his funds in the manner in which he saw fit, whether to pay 43F.:rtm.fiflll Afn.(!nsint'. 8llver Juhilee N11mher (Octnher T()~o), 511-57.
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