Growth, depression and clouds of war By Msgr. Michael Howell
T Contributor
he 1920s was a time of challenge for Bishop Emmanuel B. Ledvina, the new young shepherd of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
There was the challenge of rapid growth in the Catholic population of south Texas and the need for more churches and other facilities, met partly by the generous aid of the Extension Society. It was also a time of challenge with the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and their strong anti-Catholic bigotry. Crosses were burned in front of Catholic churches and convents. Local Catholics in Corpus Christi, such as Maxwell P. Dunne, took turns serving as night security at Incarnate Word Convent in a time that was often hostile to the Catholic Church throughout the United States. In Corpus Christi, tension erupted into violence on Oct. 14, 1922 when the local sheriff and one of his deputies shot and killed an influential real estate dealer named Fred Roberts, a Klan sympathizer. Nueces County Sheriff Frank Robinson, a Catholic, had a run-in with local merchant G. E. Warren, who was accused of membership in the Klan. Warren’s wife called Roberts to report the matter after Corpus Christi Police Chief Monroe Fox refused to act because he saw no criminal activity on the part of the sheriff. In the encounter that followed at Warren’s store, Robinson and his deputy Joe Acebo shot Roberts. Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, sent by the governor to bring order, arrested Robinson and Acebo. Both were tried and found not guilty. Robinson, supposedly fearing Klan retaliation, went into exile in Mexico for the next decade and then lived in Laredo until his death. Roberts was buried, with some Klan members present in full regalia, and his associates later built and named in his honor the Fred Roberts Memorial Hospital. New persecutions of the Church also broke out in neighboring Mexico with the election of President Plutarco Calles in 1924. He stringently enforced anti-clerical articles in the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and added more retaliatory
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SOUTH TEX AS CATHOLIC | JULY 2012
laws. This led to the licensing of priests, the expropriation of churches and church property, the deportation of bishops and the killing of hundreds of priests and other clerics as reflected in the Graham Greene novel, “The Power and the Glory” and the newly released motion picture “For Greater Glory, the True Story of Cristiada.” One of these martyred priests was Father Miguel Pro, who was executed on Nov. 23, 1927, at the age of 36. Father Pro, who reportedly had relatives in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, was beatified by Blessed John Paul II on Sept. 25, 1988. This period also saw the arrival of the Franciscans in Hebbronville after months of attempts to find refuge in San Antonio and El Paso. Bishop Ledvina received the friars, gave them charge of the parish and allowed them to set-up their seminary in exile, which was closed in 1957 as the situation in Mexico improved. These persecutions continued into the 1930s and gave way to another influx of clergy and Mexican Catholics seeking religious freedom and escape from the violence. The 1930s also saw the beginning of the Great Depression as economic troubles threatened the whole world and demanded a greater sense of solidarity and sharing if families were to make it through difficult times. Economic troubles in Germany, struggling under restitution burdens placed upon it after World War I, also opened the door to the rise of Hitler and Nazism as a response to what was seen by the Germans as exorbitant, crushing debt. The Diocese of Corpus Christi nevertheless continued to grow in numbers and need for more facilities, clergy to staff parishes and religious to meet expanding health and educational needs. Using about $10,000 collected by Bishop Paul Nussbaum for the education of future priests, Bishop Ledvina made special efforts to fund vocations and cover much of the costs for his clerical students. As a result, by the end of 1938 the diocese had 43 diocesan priests and 11 young men studying for the priesthood. Bishop Ledvina made it his practice to use any offerings given him on his Confirmation tours in the contributing www.SouthTexasCatholic.com