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Our Cat/1-olic H e1·itage in Texas
Church. On June 1, 1936, ground was broken for a new church which was blessed by the Most Reverend C. E. Byrne in November, 1936, and placed under the advocation of St. Theresa of the Little Flower. 60 A great flood of the Mississippi in 1927, brought many Colored Cath- olics into Texas, many of whom moved into Crosby, Texas. For several years they attended the church in Crosby. Father Carl Schappert, S.S.J.. the enthusiastic pastor of St. Nicholas Church in Houston, went every Sunday, beginning in 1929, to say Mass for the Colored in Crosby. By 1936, with the aid of a generous benefactor, a church was built for the Colored and named after the Blessed Martin de Porres. Not until May 1945, was a resident pastor of the new parish appointed in the person of Father John Wilson, S.S.J. 61 Today, Josephite Fathers have parishes in San Antonio, Austin, Bryan, Port Arthur, Ames, Raywood, Baytown, Crosby, Galveston, Houston, Tyler, Marshall, Texarkana, Fort Worth and Denison. 62 The thirty Josephite Fathers who were in Texas in 1951, had over twenty thousand souls under their charge. "Over ninety per cent of the Colored work is by our Fathers," said the Very Reverend James V. Finegan, S.S.J., Regional Superior. Claretian Fathers, C.lif.F., 1902. The first Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as the Claretians, because of the Blessed Saint Anthony Claret, their humble founder, came to Texas in 1901, at the invitation of the Vicar Apostolic of Brownsville, Texas, the Most Reverend Bishop Pedro Verdaguer. They came to give a mission to the hundreds of Spanish-Speaking that reside along the Rio Grande in Texas. The Reverend Mariano Lusilla, C.M.F., and the Rev- erend Camilo Torrente, C.M.F., then of the City of Mexico, ans,vered the call. The sincerity and fervor of the two missionaries brought back to the sacraments thousands of the faithful. The success of the missions preached in the lower Rio Grande attracted the attention of the Most Reverend John A. Forest, Bishop of the Diocese
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60 /bid., 90-91. 61/ bid., pp. 78-87.
62We regret the lack of data available to us on the work of the Josephite Fathers in the Diocese of Dallas. The Josephite Fathers were called to the Diocese in I 903, when Father Ferdinand, S.S.J., remodeled the old Sacred Heart Pro-Cathedral into the present St. Peter Claver Church and started building the large three-story concrete school building adjoining the church. The school was placed in care of the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, who came from San Antonio. History of the Catholic Cnurcl, ;,, Dallas, anonymous manuscript in C. A. T.
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