A Brief
History of the Ministry of the Congregation
of Holy
Cross among the Hispanic People of Austin, Texas
The history of Holy Cross
ministry among the Hispanic people of Austin appears at first to be largely a
story of the development of parish churches. Behind this building of parishes,
though, are stories of Holy Cross religious who worked with the Hispanic people
to build more than edifices—they worked to build a Church that would include all
people of Austin and Central Texas. This survey, then, attempts to provide a
sketch of how the Catholic Church, with the help of Holy Cross religious,
developed to include and serve more fully the Hispanic people. Construction of
churches is part of the story and is surely included here, but the more
important part of the story is the consideration of the people whose lives are
bound up with the development of these churches and of the Church.
Beginnings
The story of Holy Cross’s ministry to the Hispanic people begins with a sick man—Fr. Patrick
O’Reilly [see fig. 1]. O’Reilly had tuberculosis, and in 1900, in hopes that the mild Texas climate
would foster his recovery, he came to Austin to live among the Holy Cross religious there (Dunne
15). Not finding the health he had hoped for, O’Reilly ended up in Seton Hospital, and was given
four days to live. According to tradition, O’Reilly, aware of the lack of pastoral care for the
Mexican-American people in the area, promised Our Lady of Guadalupe that if he recovered from
his illness, he would dedicate the rest of his life to these people (Culhane, “History” 1). He did at
least temporarily recover, learned Spanish, and started providing pastoral ministry to Austin’s
Hispanics. He began saying masses with “instructions in Spanish” every Sunday at St. Mary’s
Church, which was the only Catholic church in the city then. By 1907, O’Reilly oversaw the opening
of the first Hispanic parish in the city, Our Lady of Guadalupe, located at the intersection of Fifth
and Guadalupe Streets [see fig. 2] (Dunne 15). According to Christopher J. O’Toole, the parish size
burgeoned quickly to include 3,000 people (4). A school was established for the Hispanic children of
the area. During the pastorate of O’Toole’s successors at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Fathers Walter
O’Donnell and Angus MacDonald, Sisters of the Holy Cross came to teach in the school (Dunne
16-17). Holy Cross continued to staff Our Lady of Guadalupe until 1925, when, according to John
Korcsmar, the Indiana Province of Holy Cross (the only U.S. province at that time) called at its
chapter meeting for an increased number of Holy Cross religious to serve at the University of Notre
Dame. Thus, lacking manpower in the south, Holy Cross turned over the pastoral care of Our Lady
of Guadalupe to the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
The next development of note
was the establishment of a new parish in Austin south of the Colorado River, St.
Ignatius Martyr. Finding the people of South Austin in need of a church, the
Congregation coordinated efforts in constructing the first St. Ignatius Church
in 1939. Patrick Duffy was the first pastor. The church was located on Johanna
Street in south Austin, and initially mainly served the white people of the area
(Dunne 26-27; Houser I). This parish is important to the area of interest here
because the mother parish of what would be called the “Mexican missions,” San
Jose, discussed below, was formed out of St. Ignatius Parish territory. Holy
Cross continues to staff St. Ignatius Parish today, with a larger church on
Oltorf Street, and with 1-lispanics comprising more than half of the 2,500 families (O’Toole 17).
In 1936, the Superior
General of the Congregation, James Donahue, sent a newly ordained priest, Alfred
Mendez, to Austin to establish “home missions” among the Hispanic and black
people [see fig. 31. Mendez began his work north of the Colorado River, which
was then within the diocese of Galveston. He grew ill, and ended up in Santa
Rosa Hospital in San Antonio. In the hospital, he met San Antonio Archbishop
Arthur Drossaerts, who was also a patient. Drossaerts asked Mendez to establish
a Mexican-American parish south of the Colorado River in Austin, in the San
Antonio archdiocese (Dunne 27; Houser 1). Mendez recovered from his illness and
began coordinating mission efforts south of the river to the Hispanic people,
initially basing his efforts at St. Edward’s University (Houser 1). Donahue’s
term as Superior General expired, and he came to Texas to assist Mendez in his
work. These two men, along with Joseph Houser and Thomas Culhane, went from
house to house in their missionary outreach before any church was constructed
[see figs. 4-51. Brother Lambert Barbier, who was the community cook and was
familiar with the area, often served as the driver for these mission trips, and
brought food for the people who were visited (Dunne 28, Korcsmar interview).
Also, Mendez had Spanish services at St. Ignatius Parish until San Jose Parish
was established (Dunne 28; Culhane, “History” 5).
Mendez wished to establish a
system of missions, with one mother church, to serve the
Spanish-speaking people of
Austin. With the approval of Archbishop Drossaerts, two Austin
churches were built, along
with other mission churches in surrounding small towns. San Jose
Church, which was to serve
as the center of the missions, was constructed in South Austin, within
St. Ignatius Parish
boundaries, at the intersection of Third and Mary streets [see flg.6]. San
Francisco Javier was
constructed southeast of the city on the Lockhart Highway (now U.S.
Highway 183, south of
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport) [see fig. 7]. Both San Jose and San
Francisco were dedicated in
1941 (Dunne 28). in 1946, a third Austin-area mission church was
completed,
Nuestra Señora de La Luz, in the Hispanic neighborhood of Montopolis east of
downtown
[see fig. 8] (Houser 2). Mendez served as pastor of this mission chain of
churches from
1939
to 1948. Many priests served as Mendez’ assistants during these years [see
appendix 1]
(Houser
2-3).
Mendez’s vision and system of missionary activity have on occasion provoked some
criticism. Though he worked to establish churches for Hispanic people, he did
not intend for these churches to continue for a long period of time as strictly
ethnic or national parishes. According to John Korcsmar, Mendez favored the
“melting pot” concept of society, and wanted the Spanish-speaking churches only
to serve in a transitional capacity. One of Mendez’s closest friends and
associates, Peter Mueller, writes in a reflection after Mendez’s death that he
“wanted integration not segregation” [see fig. 9]. Mendez began an English mass
at San Jose parish as soon as the younger generation of Mexican-American
parishioners spoke English well, and sometimes encouraged these younger people
to attend mass at the less predominantly Hispanic St. Ignatius (Mueller 3).
Korcsmar says that Mendez’s construction style of the churches reflects his
vision as well. The church buildings were relatively inexpensive to construct,
since the building materials consisted of used or free items—railroad ties,
field stones for San Jose and La Luz, street car poles (Austin had ended its
street car system to begin the city bus service), cedar logs, and telegraph
poles (“Secondhand” 24). The churches have received praise for their simple,
sturdy mission style, being referred to as “majestically rustic” (Secondhand”
24; Powers 38). Mendez had the designs for the churches drawn up, without being
charged any fee, by architectural students at Notre Dame (Culhane, “San
Francisco” 1). In addition, as Korcsmar says, Mendez built nothing more than a
church and a parish hail at each of the church locations, since he wanted
parishioners at the missions to become more inculturated by coming to one
rectory or parish center for pastoral care.
Pastorally, Mendez did love and serve the Hispanic people, however his vision of
Church may appear to our twenty-first century eyes. He set up a system of
“captains” among the Hispanic people, whereby certain parishioners were
responsible for reporting any pastoral needs within the parish to Mendez or his
associates when they were at the churches. Mueller writes that because of this
system, “. . . there was not a Mexican we knew of who died without the
sacraments” (2). Mendez continually stressed the importance of education for
Hispanic people, and was not beyond using methods that were a little unorthodox.
At one point, he authorized Mueller, for example, to preach at masses that
children must attend school according to Texas state education laws, and to cite
California cases in which parents had been fined for not sending children to
school. The enrollment at the school subsequently quadrupled, so that the
Hispanic students were taken to a larger school facility that could accommodate
them—the school for whites. In Mueller’s words, “there was instant integration”
(5). Mueller writes (years after
ministry in the San Jose Missions) that he and Mendez may or may not have used
the best system of pastoral care in the 1 940s, but that they did look upon the
Hispanic people whom they served ‘~as equals,” and spoke with them “eye to eye”
(5). Mendez, whatever his vision,
established a series of Hispanic parishes that have continued to serve the
Hispanic people of Austin and Central Texas since their foundation.
In 1948, Joseph Houser succeeded Mendez as pastor of San Jose Parish and the missions
grouped with it. Early on in his pastorate, Houser showed he did not ascribe to Mendez’s vision for
the San Jose Missions. He began a development plan that eventually transformed the mission
churches into more typically characteristic ethnic U.S. parishes (Korcsmar). Houser oversaw the
construction of a new San Jose Church (relocated to 2425 Oak Crest Street), a parish school, a
medical clinic, and a day care center [see fig. 101 (O’Toole 24; Dunne 45). La Luz and San
Francisco Javier
Parishes saw significant development under Houser’s leadership as well.
When La Luz Church was built
in 1946, Montopolis Drive was the only paved road in the neighborhood. Following
the development of Bergstrom Field nearby during and after World War II, though,
more Hispanic families moved into the Montopolis neighborhood (Culhane, “San
Francisco” 2). In 1948, the same year that the Austin Diocese was established,
Montopolis was incorporated into the city of Austin (Houser 2). With this growth
in the parish, La Luz Church became too small to accommodate all the
parishioners. In 1953, a new church was dedicated in the Montopolis neighborhood
under the new name of Nuestra Señora de los Siete Dolores, since Austin’s Bishop
Louis Reicher had stated the parish should be named after a feast day found in
the missal [see fig. 11]. Under Houser’s development plan, Dolores Parish was
also given its own rectory and pastor, Charles Delaney, and San Francisco Javier
became a mission of Dolores (Houser 4). Delaney is known to have been beloved by
the people of San Francisco and Dolores. He enacted Houser’s vision for
development by establishing a school at Dolores Parish (Korcsmar interview).
San Francisco Javier Parish
saw a decrease in the number of parishioners as La Luz / Dolores grew in size.
At the time of its founding in 1941, the parish served more than four hundred
Spanish-speaking families (“Joint Jubilee” article). Subsequently, some
parishioners moved to Montopolis and La Luz / Dolores Parish when this nearby
neighborhood developed, while a number of members of the younger generation of
Mexican Americans moved away from the area altogether (Culhane, “San Francisco”
2). San Francisco was a mission of San Jose from 1941 to 1953, and of Dolores from 1953 to 1957.
In 1957, Elmer Rupp became the first
pastor of San Francisco Javier Parish [see fig. 12] (Dunne 46). For years, Rupp
lived in a back part of the parish hail because no rectory had been built at San
Francisco and because funding was scarce (Culhane, “San Francisco” 3). Rupp
served as pastor until 1978, when he was succeeded by John Haley [see fig. 13].
Haley helped to develop the parish facilities further, coordinating an expansion
to the church as the number of parishioners increased to include a heterogeneous
mixture of whites and Hispanics (O’Toole 23). Holy Cross continued to staff San
Francisco until February of 2000, when, because of fewer Holy Cross priests
available in Austin to maintain apostolic commitments, the pastoral leadership
of the parish was assumed by the Diocese of Austin.
In 1962, Fred Underwood
became pastor of Dolores Parish in Montopolis [see fig. 14]. Underwood, seeing
the need for assistance and change in this neighborhood sometimes referred to as
“poverty island,” embarked on an ambitious program of neighborhood development.
With the assistance of Elmer Rupp, Underwood worked with the people of the
neighborhood to develop a non-profit, non-sectarian Community Center on
Montopolis Drive. Since the Center was not technically sponsored by the Church
and was not to offer religious education of any kind, it was funded by a
government loan and became a collaborative effort of local, state, and national
governments (O’Toole 19-22). Programs offered at the Center over the next few
years included adult continuing education, a Youth Corps targeted at school
dropouts, day care and Head Start programs, job referrals, and the availability
of social workers. Underwood also pushed to have a bus line extended from the
Montopolis neighborhood to central Austin, where people could catch the public
busses (O’Toole 20). Underwood’s next major building project was housing
development on land that was owned by Dolores Parish, funded by a two million
dollar loan that Underwood had secured from the Diocese of Austin (Dunne 45; O’Toole 22). Also during Underwood’s
time as pastor of Dolores, the religious education program improved. Brother
Joel Giallanza became catechetical director and a group of Franciscan Sisters
began serving the parish as religious educators. in 1972, Underwood brought the
fervor of the charismatic prayer movement to Dolores Parish (Korcsmar
interview). The prayer movement at Dolores Parish reflected to some extent the
city- and nation-wide charismatic wave of that time. The next two pastors of
Dolores Parish were Steven Lambour and Joel Atwood, who continued the
neighborhood and parish work Underwood had begun (Dunne 45).
As was mentioned above,
Joseph Houser was Alfred Mendez’s successor as the pastor of San Jose Parish,
and it was during Houser’s pastorate that San Jose ceased being the mother
parish of other mission parishes. Houser served as pastor of San Jose from 1948
to 1967, and his successor was John Haley, who, as was discussed above, was the
second pastor of San Francisco Javier Parish. During Haley’s time as pastor of
San Jose, a large community center was built to
accompany the school and
church Fr. Houser had constructed (Korcsmar interview). In 1976, John Korcsmar
became pastor of San Jose Parish. He emphasized social justice issues among
parishioners, and worked to form the neighborhood into the South Austin
Neighborhood Council, whose function was, among other things, to help children
who were classified as “problem kids” or had dropped out of school. Korcsmar
also began organizing Austin Interfaith, a political partnership among various
faith denominations that grew out of the Communities Organized for Public
Service (C.O.P.S.) program in San Antonio (Reese 34).
In 1982, Korcsmar was named
pastor of Dolores Parish, while Underwood, who had been vocation director after
his pastorate at Dolores, was named pastor of San Jose. As pastor of San Jose,
Underwood continued to emphasize the charismatic prayer movement, San Jose
became something of a city-wide, area, charismatic church (Korcsmar interview).
With so many people from around the city coming to worship at San Jose, the
church built by Fr. Houser became too small. Underwood then oversaw the
construction of a massive new San Jose Church that Bishop John McCarthy dubbed
the “Cathedral of South Austin.” Underwood was pastor of San Jose until 1993,
when the Diocese of Austin assumed pastoral control of the parish.
At Dolores Parish, meanwhile, Korcsmar continued his work in the area of social
justice (see fig. 15). With Korcsmar
and other pastors’ support, Austin Interfaith grew into a much larger
collaborative effort. The coalition works to improve neighborhoods, schools, and
workplaces. It became affiliated with the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation
Network (I.A.F.), an umbrella organization that includes programs similar to
Austin Interfaith from around the state. Austin Interfaith and 1.A.F. regularly
sponsor “accountability sessions,” in which politicians are asked whether they
share the social justice goals of the people in these organizations (McNeely).
Besides carrying forward the tradition of neighborhood empowerment and involvement as pastor of
Dolores, Korcsmar has established programs to provide active lay persons with training grounded in
theological education. Korcsmar continues as pastor of Dolores Parish today.
Dolores is the one parish
that grew out of the San Jose Missions system that is still staffed by Holy
Cross today. As the Southern Province of Holy Cross has developed some new
(Hispanic and other) apostolic commitments outside of Austin and declined in
active membership, the province has painfully had to withdraw from some
long-standing Holy Cross parochial commitments. The story of how the parishes
considered here developed is important for Holy Cross religious to remember,
though, since this story gives us a sense of how we as a community have
progressed to our current position. The Southern Province’s continuing
commitment to Hispanic ministry reflects the reality that the heritage of Holy
Cross in the South has been enriched by a history of service to the Hispanic
people.
© Copyright 2000, Congregation of Holy Cross, Southern Province