275
Creation of a Secttlar Clergy
written to the Superior General of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Paris. "Having heard," he said, "that the direction of Grand (major] Seminaries is one of the principal aims of the Congregation, I would gladly confide my seminary to your care, especially since I cannot use- lessly introduce other religious bodies in my diocese." The good Bishop then went on to explain the situation of the San Antonio Diocese. "For a number of years, the diocesan seminary has been in the same building with the parochial school in a city at great distance from the Episcopal City. The missions call for all the Priests I can have and among- them, I fail to find those with the aptitude to teach." In view of the cor- cumstances he then went on to explain his particular needs. "I desire ( r) to see the seminary in the Episcopal City; (2) confide it to a religious order: the Oblates." He then proposed that they open a formal seminary and asked if in the case they put up an institution to foster vocations for the Order, would they accept his "own seminarians for a price agreed upon, the Oblates remaining sole proprietors of the lots and buildings?" He explained that ordinarily there were from eight to ten seminarians a year in his seminary, but that a certain number would come from the dioceses of Dallas and Galveston and the Vicariate Apostolic of Browns- ville and the other dioceses that are without a seminary. Bishop Forest pointed out another inducement and said, "Because of the solubrious dimate of Texas, many Bishops from the North have already sent stu- dents to my seminary though they have their own." 55 The idea was taken under advisement and Providence helped to convert it into a reality. The Assistant General of the Oblates, Father Tatin, during the Canonical Visitation of the Oblate Province in 1901, learned while in San Antonio that Archbishop Eulogio Gillow of Oaxaca, Mexico, owned a spacious and well located piece of property on Laurel Heights, in the city that would be an ideal location for the contemplated Seminary. He had acquired it some time before precisely for that purpose, as he desired a place where to train young Priests for the evangelization of Mexicans, whether in Mexico or the United States. A meeting was ar- ranged through correspondence, which took to Oaxaca Father Tatin, the Assistant General; Father Joseph Lefebvre, the Provincial of the Oblates; and Father Henry A. Constantineau, O.M.I., for a conference with Archbishop Gillow in regard to his property in San Antonio. The Arch- bishop of Oaxaca agreed to sell the property on Laurel Heights for the purpose of founding a Seminary in which Priests would be educated and sssa11 Antonio Chancer" Arc/1ives, O.M.I., 17.
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