PREFACE
A reviewer of the sixth volume aptly said that OUR CATHOLIC HERITAGE IN TEXAS was in truth one of the most complete histories of the State from its earliest beginnings to the point reached by the sixth volume ( 1836) "with the Church included." When the author undertook this work years ago he resolved to write the complete history of the State from 1519, when Alvarez de Pineda first delineated the entire coastline of the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Veracruz to the year 1936. With but few exceptions, historians have ignored the Church in the history of the State and the constant force it has been in the State's development and growth. Under Spain and Mexico the Church and the State were inextricably related to each other until 1836. It was impossible to separate one from the other without presenting an imperfect and incomplete pic- ture of its history. The first six volumes therefore present the full picture "with the Church included," as noted by the reviewer. This last volume, which covers the period since 1836 reflects the new status of the Church after the attainment of Texas independence and it is more strictly con- fined to the history of the Church itself, its growth and development, and its contribution to the State and its people in the fields of education and welfare, as well as in the preservation of the Faith. In its broad outline this volume was completed in 1954, four years after the publication of the sixth, but the process of putting the text in its final form has been unduly delayed through a series of untoward circumstances beyond the time generally required for this purpose. The author is greatly relieved to bring to a conclusion at last a task undertaken almost a quarter of a century ago. Planned as a cooperative enterprise under a general editor originally, each volume was to have been written by a different author in order to distribute the burden. But after the publication of the first two volumes in 1936 as the Knights of Columbus of Texas' contri- bution to the State centennial the author was prevailed upon to write one more volume in the series while other writers could be found to go on with the remaining five volumes. But as years passed the historical commission of the Texas Knights of Columbus argued that the writer continue with the remaining volumes to give the series uniformity of style and presen- tation. Reluctantly the author agreed to write each succeeding volume, prolonging a labor of love intended to be limited to the first two volumes of the series. Unavoidable interruptions caused by World War II prompted
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