Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, April 14, 1978 Page: 1 of 6
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PRICE-IOC
FRorathe
Bishop’s
desk...
In my column last week, I wrote about the
obligation for all of us to promote religious
vocations in order to provide for the future
needs of the Church. Since Sunday, April 16th,
is designated as the “World Day of Prayer
For Vocations,” and since we will celebrate
that day with a special 2 p.m. outdoor Mass at
our Corpus Christi Minor Seminary, it might
be well for us to also hear what our Holy
Father, Pope Paul VI has to say on this same
subject. After describing the enormity of the
task of providing shepherds to “meet the
spiritual needs of the growing population”,
the pontiff encourages us to have faith in the
Good Shepherd, Himself, who, "in this
Sunday’s liturgy, comes to meet us and holds
out His hand as He invites us to ‘ask the Lord
of the harvest to send laborers to His harvest.’
(Mt. 9:37-38)” Prayer, then, is the first and
most necessary to step to be taken by all of us
who have a deep interest in the continuing
activity of the Church. Without exception, it is
a step that is available to each one of us. It is
something that gives us an opportunity to be
part of a world wide team.
The Holy Father addresses young people
and asks them to consider both Christ and the
Church. He points to the fact that Christ is the
one who took “the form of a servant,
becoming obedient unto death, even death on
a Cross.” It is from this same Christ that
comes the Priesthood of the New Covenant:
both the common priesthood of the faithful by
virtue of the Sacrament of Baptism, and the
ministerial priesthood from which flows the
gift of the evangelical counsels of chastity
dedicated to God, and poverty and obedience
based upon the words and example of the
Lord. For young people, who in an intimacy
lived day by day with Christ, it often happens
that there springs up and grows in the heart a
desire to give oneself irrevocably, without
compromise or surrender with a joy that is
ever new and rejuvenating to the responsi-
bility of being stewards entrusted with the
mysteries of God.
Young people should also consider the
Church as the Lord’s flock which He has
gathered together and which He continues to
guide, as the Good Shepherd and as the model
of every shepherd. It is this Church, both
visible and spiritual which seeks but a
solitary goal to carry forward the work of
Christ Himself. It is for this Church that Jesus
instituted his priesthood and raised up the life
consecrated in the profession of the evangeli-
cal counsels.
The Holy Father also appeals not only to
young people but to all the People of God that
the truths of Jesus and His Church be taught
and made known in order that one’s vocation
may be discovered and that all of us may
remain faithful to the grace of God.
Contracts mailed for
Festival Corpus Christi
Contracts for booths for FESTIVAL
CORPUS CHRISTI are in the mail this
week to the representatives of participat-
ing parishes, diocesan departments, reli-
gious congregations, and extra-parochial
organizations. The contracts will be asking
for firm commitments and giving specific
directives on both choices and rights to
booths. Booths will express the great
panorama of the Church throughout the
Diocese of Corpus Christi.
The celebration of the Feast of Corpus
Christi is scheduled for June 11 at Memor-
ial Coliseum in Corpus Christi. The day
will begin with a Mass to be celebrated at
11:00 a.m. by Bishop Thomas J. Drury.
Continuous entertainment will follow until
8:00 p.m.
Committee chairmen met with the
Festival steering committee on April 6 in
Incarnate Word Library to finalize guide-
lines and contract forms.
Candidates for "Miss Festival Corpus
Christi” have been chosen from parishes
and organizations. Specially prepared
“Festival Corpus Christi” T-shirts win be
June 11 -
Memorial
FESTIVAL
corpus christi
sold by the candidates. The young lady
who sells the most T-shirts will be judged
the winner and will be honored at the
Festival.
General chairman for the Festival is
Roy Grassedonio. Committee chairmen
are Miss Delfa Gonzalez, administration;
Bob McAuliffe, entertainment; Fred John-
son, publicity ; Sister Mary Camelia Her-
lihy, Mass; Mrs. John Kennedy, food
booths; Mrs. Anna Tiblier; display booths,
Rev. Mr. Willard Oliver, sales and games
booths; Mrs. Sandra Lemaire, Miss
Festival Corpus Christi. Mrs. Newton
Mitchell is Festival coordinator.
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Texas gulf coast
CATHOLIC
OHiciai Newspaper of the Diocese Corpus Christ,
Vol. XII No. 46
Fric>oc/ ApRiJ 14, 197& J
Bishop Patrick Fernandez Flores
Bishop Sidney Matthew Metzger
Bishop Metzger resigns
Bishop Flores named to El Paso
WASHINGTON — Pope Paul VI has ac-
cepted the resignation of 75-year-old Bishop
Sidney M. Metzger of El Paso, Texas, and
appointed Auxiliary Bishop Patrick F. Flores
of San Antonio as his successor
Bishop Metzger, a priest for 52 years, has
headed the El Paso diocese since 1942. Bishop
Flores, 48, was the first Mexican-American to
be made a bishop of the Catholic Church in
this country when he was named to the San
Antonio archdiocese in 1970.
The resignation and appointment were
announced by Archbishop Jean Jadot,
Apostolic Delegate in the United States.
Patrick Fernandez Flores was born July 26,
1929 in Ganado, a community near Houston,
Tex. The eighth of nine children in a family of
migrant farm workers, he attended several
different elementary schools in Texas and
graduated at the head of his high school class
at Galveston in 1949. Completing studies at St.
Mary’s Seminary in Houston, he was or-
dained at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Galveston, on
May 26, 1956.
HEW Secretary briefed on Natural Family Planning
Father Flores’ first assignment was an
assistant pastor at Holy Name parish in
Houston. He was named pastor of Guardian
Angel parish, Pasadena, Tex. in l%4. Active
in the Christian Family Movement, he also
served as director of the Houston diocesan
office for the Spanish-speaking and as a
director of the Cursillo movement for a
number of years.
In 1967 Father Flores was made pastor of
St. Joseph-St. Stephen parish in Houston and
was serving in that post when he was
appointed Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio,
March 18, 1970. He was ordained to the
by Michelle Mueller
Past articles on Holy Cross Cemetery have
dealt with the problems and conditions of the
cemetery today. The point of these stories
have been to make the reading public aware
of an area that has been neglected. The
run-down condition of Holy Cross could be due
to oversight or lack of funds or both.
Not everyone is interested in history or
preserving their heritage. Only a few care
enough to want to know their roots — who
they are, where they began, who came before
them, etc.
However, should one want to find out about
their local roots or the city’s founders, Holy
Cross is definitely a place to begin. The
earliest recorded burial is that of “Michael
Dunn, Dec. 25, 1854 — Jan. 2, 1855.”
A few Civil War casualties rest there as do
some victims of a yellow fever epidemic from
the summer of 1867. Events of the earliest
local history and the hurricane of 1919 are
also recorded on the headstones of many
graves in Holy Cross Cemetery. Ireland and
old Mexico appear hundreds of times on the
inscriptions.
Documents show that on Nov. 28,1869, Mrs.
Catherine Bray deeded a 30 acre plot of
ground on the Old Shell Road to the Catholic
Church for a cemetery. She was paid $100 by
Rev. Peter Berthet who was acting for the Rt.
Rev. CM. Dubois, the Bishop of Texas then.
The plot was known as Mt. Calvary
Cemtery and is now included in Holy Cross
Cemetery. In the older section of the
cemetery are buried 4 priests.
Bishop FitzSimon, from Amarillo, visited
the cemetery in 1951, and noted the gravesite
of the priests. He wrote, “In Holy Cross
Cemetery.....in old section, we found a large
vault, built with the center like a large
cylinder of concrete (like a locomotive). At
the rear, a pedestal supports a marble
tombstone, which appears to be very old.
“On the front is inscribed: ‘L.J. David.
Diac. Born -n Lyons, France. Died in Corpus
Christi, Oct. 8, 1866. Aged 22 years.’ Below
this inscription is: ‘Father Anthony Micou-
leau. Born in Lyons, France. Died in Corpus
Christi, Aug. 1867’.” (Possible yellow fever
victim).
“On the north side is inscribed: ‘Father
John Gonnard. Born in France. Died in
Corpus Christi, Sept. 7, 1867.’ On the south
side is iascribed: ’Fr. Charles Doherty. Born
in Co. Donegal, Ireland. Died in Rockport,
May 6, 1894’.”
From these graves and the inscriptions
Bishop FitzSimon, a historian, surmised that
the “... type of marble, etc., is of the epoch of
the fifties and sixties ” (meaning the 1850’s
and 1860’s).
“The monument was placed first over the
grave of David; Fathers Micouleau and
Gonnard were probably placed in graves with
a perishable marker. After the death of Fr.
Doherty, I think Fr. Jaillet must have built
the vault and placed in it all the bodies,
Coni, on page 4
opposite solutions to the problem,” Foley
said.
Dr. Ratner was asked why the Billings”
method has not received more attention. He
pointed out that since there is no product
associated with natural methods, there is no
incentive for the drug companies to research
NFP or to promote those methods that
compete with their products.
However, Congresswoman Boggs and
Mercedes Wilson were much more persuasive
in expressing the attitudes of women who are
anxious to learn how they can be in control of
their reproductive lives. The two women
stressed the need for the government to
encourage responsibile sexual behavior in
youth, both from a health and social stand-
point.
The meeting achieved its objective to
inform Sec. Califano of the potential of NFP
in keeping with the Administration’s desire to
reinforce family life values, seek alternatives
to abortion, but more importantly, to expand
the availability of instruction in this natural
method of family planning within the federal
programs.
The Department of Continuing Education
will offer a program in spiritual development
to the priests of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
The program is the popular GENESIS II,
which is being used by dioceses around the
country to assist priests in their spiritual
needs.
GENESIS II will be offered at the Ramada
Inn, Shoreline Drive, Corpus Christi, on
Monday, April 17th at 7:00 p.m. and continu-
ing until noon Friday, April 2lst.
The program will be offered free to all
priests of the Diocese. The only expenses
entailed will be meals and a room at the
motel.
Father Carl Tenhundfeld, of Holy Name
Retreat House in Houston, Texas, will be the
director.
At the present time Bishop Flores serves as
a member of the Hispanic Affairs and
Migration and Tourism committees of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Sidney Matthew Metzger was born in
Fredericksburg, Tex., July 11, 1902. He
attended St. John’s Seminary, San Antonio,
and the North American College in Rome
where he was ordained at St. John Lateran
Basilica, April 3, 1926. After earning a
doctorate at the Pontifical Institute of Canon
and Civil Law in Rome in 1928, he was
professor at St. John’s Seminary, 1928-1933,
professor and pro-rector of St. John’s 1933-
1940, and regent, St. Mary’s University Law
School, San Antonio, 1935-1940.
Ordained Auxiliary Bishop of Santa Fe
April 10, 1940, Bishop Metzger was named
Coadjutor Bishop of El Paso December 26,
1941, and succeeded to the see of El Paso on
November 29, 1942.
The diocese of El Paso, which comprises
more than 26,000 square miles in Texas and
more than 30,000 square miles in New Mexico,
has a Catholic population of 264,512 in a total
population of 800,000. Bishop Metzger will act
as Apostolic Administrator of the see until
Bishop Flores takes possession.
Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Edu-
cation, and Welfare, heard last week how the
Billings’ Ovulation method of Natural Family
Planning works. He found out why it is the
growing choice among a large number of
couples and why it should be given even
greater emphasis by HEW in carrying out
federal family planning programs.
In a one hour meeting last Friday after-
noon, Mercedes Wilson, President of the
World Organization Ovulation Method Bil-
lings (WOOMB) in theU.S., told Sec. Califano
that WOOMB now has 30 regional centers
delivering the Billings method of NFP to the
public throughout the U.S.
“Billings’ has proven effective in helping
couples to space their children and to avoid a
pregnancy when they have all the children
they wish. The Ovulation Method is also an
effective natural method that has helped
those couples desiring to achieve a preg-
nancy,” Mercedes Wilson said. “It may be
used to increase the probability of having a
boy or girl, where the couple prefer,” Mrs.
Wilson told Califano.
Mrs. Wilson is the dynamic woman who has
lead the volunteer organization since return-
ing from Australia. She first learned the
method there while with her husband, an oil
company geologist on assignment. The
method is named after Drs. John and Lyn
Billings, who have correlated the natural
symptoms of cervical muscus with ovulation.
The Billings’ method is now taught world-
wide in “Fertility Awareness” classes that
enable women to know which days conception
is possible for them.
John Brennan, M.D., of Milwaukee, Wis-
consin, and Herbert Ratner, M.D., of Oak
Park, Illinois, along with John Foley of
Corpus Christi assisted Mrs. Wilson and
Congresswoman Boggs of Louisiana in brief-
ing Sec. Califano.
Dr. Brennan complimented the HEW
cabinet head on his move to inform the public
of the dangers of polluting their lungs by
smoking cigarettes. “It is even more impor-
tant that we teach youth not to pollute their
reproductive organs,” Dr. Brennan said. He
cited the current “Family Planning” policies
that issue contraceptives to minors without
parental knowledge or consent, the adverse
side effect of the “pill” and the coil IUD, and
the hazards in legal abortion.
Dr. Ratner, a past public health official,
said the dangers which have been reported in
the medical circles are just now being
reported to the user population. They are
serious enough that the Food and Drug
Administration has now required each
package of ‘the pill’ to include a warning of
the adverse symptoms which are reasons
themselves to not take ‘the pill’. As a result of
these warnings, women who have been on ‘the
pill’ now seek a natural means of “Family
Planning.”
John Foley described the difficulties of
trying to introduce NFP into existing public
delivery systems that are all oriented to the
contraceptive, sterilization, and abortion
means of “Family Planning.”
“It is unrealistic to think we can have those:-,
oriented to the current approaches in ‘Family
Planning’ to be able to give both natural and
artificial methods. HEW wouldn’t consider
asking the local bartender to give ‘freedom of
choice’ to the alcoholic — either a drink or
counseling — and that the federal govern-
ment pick up the bill....Natural and Artificial
Family Planning are just,as fundamentally
Holy Cross is worth preserving
Genesis II: An educational
program for spiritual growth
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Freeman, Robert E. Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, April 14, 1978, newspaper, April 14, 1978; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth840849/m1/1/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .