The Dawn of a New Era
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failure is [largely due to the fact] that my worthy friend," says Bollaert, "did not know how to choose his ground. The picture that presented itself was distressing, people brought up in the luxuries of Paris and full of intelligence were here seen utterly helpless. 1120 Ambitious and impolitic as his grandiose plan had been, it, neverthe• less, fixed the attention of Rome on Texas and impelled the Sacred Congregation de A·o,paganda Fide to ascertain the true facts, which were eventually to lead to the establishment of the dreamed-of bishopric. Bishop Blanc's astonishment in March, 1838, at the request from Car• dinal Fransoni, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation, to dispatch one of his priests to Texas without delay, and his bewilderment at the possible source of the Papal information leading to the request are explained by Farnese's report of the previous year. The Vatican had learned, the Cardinal wrote Bishop Blanc, of the sorry plight of the faithful in Texas, with no priest to minister to their wants and with conditions worsening because of the daily swelling of the number of immigrants. The President of the new Republic, His Eminence added, was known to be well disposed towards Catholicism. In order to' determine what was best for the permanent good of religion in the distant province, the Holy See was anxious to obtain a reliable report on actual conditions. 21 While yet bewildered as to the source of the Papal information, Bishop Blanc gave serious consideration to the means at his disposal for com- plying with the wishes of the Sacred Congregation. The one difficulty was the lack of priests; he had none to spare; the field in the Southwest was vast and the laborers were few indeed. After some thought the solution came to him like a flash. Father John Timon 1 rector of the seminary, president of the reorganized college at St. Mary-of-the-Bar- rens, and Visitor of the recently erected American Vincentian Province was the logical agent for the proposed undertaking. Well aware of the great zeal of this tireless missionary of Missouri, whose fame had already extended to Texas, as shown by the suggestion of his name in the Texan petition of the previous year, Blanc wrote Timon on March 20William E. B(1/laert Papers, The Newberry Library, Chica~o. I, 148, cited by Schmitz, Tims Tltey Lived: Social Life in the Retmblic of Te:r:as, 13-14. He either returned to France shortly afterwards or died a victim of the prevalent recurring waves of the plague and yellow fever, which often wiped out entire families.-Nothing more is heard about him. 21Cardinal Fransoni to The Most Reverend Antonio Blanc, Bishop of New Orleans, Rome, January 16, J 838. Latin text and English translation printed in Diamond Jubilee, 1847-1922, (If lite Diocese of Gal11es/<m and St. lllary's Catlwlral, 33-34.
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