Our Catliolic Heritage in Texas
Province of San Antonio. It was about to embark on a new era of development. In 1941 there came to the old City of the Alamo a new, young and vigorous Archbishop, the Most Reverend Robert E. Lucey, S.T.D., a graduate of the North American College in Rome, known as a champion of social justice. Like the pioneer Bishop of Texas, the zealous Odin, he had come in contact with the stimulating Fathers of the Congregation of the Mission in St. Vincent's College in Los Angeles, the City of Our Lady Queen of the Angels. In his most impressionable years, he had come to know the Fathers of St. Vincent de Paul. It is not strange that shortly after he became the second Archbishop of San Antonio, he, as Bishop Odin almost a hundred years before, should have "cherished" the hope of entrusting his Seminary to the Fathers of the Mission. He forthwith extended to them an invitation to take charge of its educa- tional and spiritual management. The Vincentians gladly accepted the offer and have been in charge since. Stebsequent developmmt. Even with the addition of Margil Hall in 1935, the increasing number of students and professors soon brought about an acute shortage of space which crowded the buildings far beyond capacity. The unrelenting drive for vocations was beginning to bear fruit. The need of a new building became imperative and in 1943 plans were made for an extensive drive to raise funds for the contemplated addition. As the drive for funds continued, the question of whether it would not be best to start building an entirely new Major Seminary for the more advanced studies, leaving the original plant to be used for an en- larged Minor Seminary was seriously considered. After much delibera- tion, the ambitious idea of a new set of building was abandoned. Al- though the original campaign for funds proved successful, construction costs soared higher and higher during the war years and made the more pretentious plans unfeasible. It was finally decided that an addition to the present plant was more practical. St. Mary's Hall was built and com- pleted in 1947. By 1950, St. John's Seminary had been in operation for thirty-five years. It could point with pride to over two hundred and forty servants of God who received all or part of their training within its walls. Refer- ence has already been made to the Vice-rectorship of Bishop Garriga, who also served as procurator and professor. After World War I, he was made professor of Spanish and Sacred Eloquence from 1921 to 1936. Its illustrious alumnus, the Most Reverend Bishop Sidney Matthew Metzger,
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