PARISH LIFE
Parishioners at Ss. Cyril & Methodius listen to Bishop Mulvey’s invitation to mirror the community of the Holy Spirit and have Jesus at the center of their lives. Alfredo Cardenas South Texas Catholic
overcoming adversity is its companion characteristic. The community has survived many disasters in its 100-year history. The 1919 hurricane destroyed the parish hall that doubled as a school and severely damaged the church. From the start, the Bohemian community had been an important part of the German church, and on Feb. 2, 1922, Bishop Emmanuel Ledvina decided to make it a national parish to serve Bohemians exclusively. It was not until nearly 20 years later, in 1939, that the bishop approved the name change to Ss. Cyril and Methodius, brothers in blood and cloth, who were known as the “apostles to the Slavs” and whom in 1980 Blessed John Paul II named as co-patron saints of Europe. After surviving the Great Depression and the Second World War, parishioners at Ss. Cyril & Methodius set out to build a new church. Father Francis J. Kasper, who had been pastor since 1930, asked permission from Bishop Ledvina to build a new church in what was then the middle www.SouthTexasCatholic.com
of cornfields at Lexington (now SPID) and Kostoryz. After rejecting the idea as “crazy,” the bishop relented and his successor Bishop Mariano Garriga dedicated the current Ss. Cyril and Methodius church on April 11, 1948. Five years later Msgr. Kasper began construction of a school that opened in 1954 staffed by four sisters of the Holy Ghost. The school remains a vibrant part of the parish community, teaching students through the fifth grade. Msgr. Kasper died in 1968 after having presided over the transition from German to Czech, from St. Boniface to Ss. Cyril & Methodius and from Agnes Street to the corner of SPID and Kostoryz. He is credited with building the modern plant that is still in use. No doubt that Msgr. Kasper also guided the parish through the initial stages of its third transition from a Czech parish to a predominantly Hispanic church family. It was Msgr. Patrick Higgins, who succeeded Msgr. Kasper as pastor, who guided the parish through the changes brought JULY 2012 | SOUTH TEX AS CATHOLIC
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