Catlrolic Educational, Endeavors
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carrying on educational work in Texas under adverse circumstances. Their success has been truly noteworthy. 103 Basilian Fatlrers, 1899. The Congregation of St. Basil is dedicated largely to higher education, attempted the establishment of an academy for boys in Waco in 1899. A meeting of the business men and civic leaders was called in April of that year at which Father P. J. Clancy of Assump- tion Church presented Father McBrady, C.S.B., who explained the plans of his Community to open a school for boys in the city. The idea was heartily received and assurances of public support were given. On Sep- tember 4, 1899, St. Basil's College for boys was duly opened, but the response, contrary to general expectation, was not encouraging and the project was abandoned after a year. 104 The next year the Basilian Fathers went to Houston, where Father Nicholas Roche, C.S.B., aided by two other members of his order, estab- lished St. Thomas College, an unpretentious one-room school, that first year. Shortly afterwards, property was acquired on St. Austin Street, where a new building was erected that was to serve Houston boys for thirty-nine years. The steady growth of the school induced Father T. P. O'Rourke, C.S.B., to acquire a new site on Memorial Drive on which Father A L. Higgins, C.S.B., built the modern, spacious high school of St. Thomas, which in 1947 had a staff of twenty-eight and an enrollment of over 650 students. Anxious for a Catholic university in his diocese to complete the struc- ture of Catholic education, the late Most Reverend Bishop C. E. Byrne repeatedly urged the Basilian Fathers to found an institution of higher education in Houston. The Basilians acceded to his request in 1945, and in March, 1946, through the kind offices of a distinguished Catholic layman, His Holiness Pope Pius XII graciously bestowed his Pontifical Benediction on a "Catholic University to be founded in the City of Hous- ton," and upon the Congregation of St. Basil and the citizens who, as students or benefactors, contribute to the realization of this undertaking." On October 27, 1946, Bishop Byrne solemnly blessed and dedicated the former T. P. Lee home as temporary quarters of the new Catholic Univer- !.ity of Houston. The new University was named St. Thomas in honor of the old College of the same name that had been so bravely started and successfully nurtured under the advocation of the great Doctor of the lOJA letter of Sister Mary Jerome to the Author dated Holv Redeemer School San Antonio, Texas, July, 1951, has proved useful in the prepara.tion of this summa~y. l04Waco Times H ,mild, April 8, 1889; September 4, 1889,
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