by Msgr. Michael Howell, Contributor

March 28, 2012

The diocese's first bishop, Passionist priest Paul Nussbaum (in front center), led the first retreat of his priests in January 1915. (Diocese of Corpus Christi Archives)

When he was ordained a bishop on May 20, 1913 to shepherd the newly erected Diocese of Corpus Christi, Father Paul Joseph Nussbaum, CP, was only 42 years old.  He was a young and energetic bishop to serve a young and growing diocese during some very challenging years that rapidly aged him. 

He was born Henry Nussbaum in Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 1870, lost his parents early in life and was raised by relatives.  He professed his vows as a member of the Passionist Order, taking the religious name of Paul and was ordained on May 20, 1894 at the young age of 23.  He spent 10 years Argentina missions before returning to assignments in New England as a professor, a preacher, a seminary vice-rector, a pastor and a second consultor of the Eastern Province of the Passionist Order. 

Even before his arrival for his installation in Corpus Christi on June 8, 1913, there were already problems.  When the provincial archbishop for the area, Archbishop James H. Blenk of New Orleans, sent his Vicar General to officially deliver the decree of erection of the new diocese and transfer back to Corpus Christi all previous episcopal records from Bishop Peter Verdaguer’s former residence in Laredo, no documents from the administrations of Bishop Dominic Manucy or Bishop Verdaguer were found. 

Thus, the new bishop assumed his post without any written record of the previous development of the faith in south Texas.  Since Bishop Verdaguer had chosen to reside in Laredo, there was no designated home for the bishop to use as residence or personal office.  The Kenedy family solved that problem by offering their cottage on the corner of Lipan and N. Upper Broadway to the bishop until he could build a suitable home in 1915. 

The bishop came to an area with a population of about 158,000 of whom 82,400 were Catholics; about 70,000 of these were Mexican Americans.  He had 16 secular priests and 19 religious priests to serve about 19 churches and 44 missions. 

He quickly set out to promote vocations, Catholic action programs, retreats, the Sodality movement, Holy Hours, Holy Week retreats and new construction where needed.  While he faced many challenges, he also had some important blessings to aid him in his ministry to the faithful in south Texas. 

First, he had the support of his brother priests from the Passionist Congregation who were used to missionary work, were fluent in both English and Spanish, had a reputation for their preaching abilities and were anxious to help out their young companion who was the first from their congregation in the United States to be named a bishop. 

In need of vocations in a geographically large area, Bishop Nussbaum relied on the Oblates to continue their work in the Rio Grande Valley but drew upon the Passionist to travel throughout the ranches and towns in the northern areas of the diocese to supplement the work of the local clergy that had come to south Texas from France, Spain and other areas. 

These Passionist included members of the Holy Cross Province, the St. Paul of the Cross Province and even the Spanish Holy Family Province.  Father Fidelis Kent Stone had founded houses in Chile before coming to serve in Corpus Christi at Holy Cross parish.  Others like Father Isidore Dwyer, Father Leonard Cunningham and Father Patrick Walsh had worked extensively in Argentina. 

Fathers Aloysius Boyle, Paulinus Doran, Timothy Fitzpatrick, Martin Ford, Fabian Fortune, Mark Moeslein, Theodore Noonan, Damian O’Rourke, David Ferland, Erasmus Glockner and Peter Hanley had served in pastoral positions, as professors and administrators in seminaries, and in other administrative roles.

From 1914 to 1928 a series of Passionist priest assisted the bishop at the Cathedral, but often traveled to serve the growing communities.  One such missionary was Father Cunningham who resided at the Cathedral rectory and traveled to early missions in Portland, Calallen and Robstown.  One of the pains for the new bishop was the loss of some of these companions at early ages because of disease and exhaustion.

Another major blessing for the young bishop was the newly established Church Extension Society.  Father Francis Kelly, in 1904, had urged the formation of an organization that could funnel personnel and finances to under-resourced and isolated communities in the United States.  This effort of the Church family providing help to needy brothers and sisters in America resulted in the establishment of the Church Extension Society in 1905 through the initiative of Archbishop Quigley of Chicago. 

At the time of the erection of the Diocese of Corpus Christi five years later, a young and energetic Father Emmanuel B. Ledvina—who became the second bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi—was the General Secretary of the Society.  Between 1905 and 1921 the Society erected 1,932 churches, 98 schools and convents for the teaching sisters and 44 rectories throughout the United States.  The Vicariate of Brownsville and subsequently the Diocese of Corpus Christi shared in that blessed help. 

To help meet the needs of rural areas, Father Ledvina also designed chapel cars.  Some were railroad cars redesigned to serve as chapels where the trains passed small communities.  Others were automobiles modified to serve communities the trains could not reach.  As early as 1914, the first such car—the “St. Peter”—arrived in Texas for use by the Oblates in the ranches of the Rio Grande Valley. 

These mobile chapels allowed the Church to come to the people until the local community and the Extension Society could erect more permanent facilities.  The Society was especially helpful in the early days of Bishop Nussbaum as south Texas faced the blessing and burden of caring for refugees that had poured into the area because of the revolution taking place in Mexico and the subsequent persecutions. 

In Texas alone, the Society built 313 new chapels with funds to aid these Mexican refugees.  The fleeing clergy were a blessing in serving their fellow expatriates. Father Cajetano Alvarez, who had been born in Spain in 1871 and served in Pueblo and Tamaulipas, fled across the border in 1913 and served in Falfurrias and later in Sacred Heart in Corpus Christi until his death in 1940.

Entire religious communities, such as the Congregation of the Missionary Daughters of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, fled with their founder Mother Julia Navarrete and flourished in their ministry to the people of the Diocese of Corpus Christi and beyond.

However, many of these refugees also represented a financial burden, as there were so many that had to be housed and supported while they awaited return from exile. The 1915 National Catholic Directory notes that the Diocese of Corpus Christi had 50 refugee priests.  At one point, Laredo was home to 14 Mexican bishops and archbishops living in exile.

The other challenge to the young bishop within the first years of his arrival was the hurricane of 1916 that essentially wiped out much of the work of the Extension Society in the northern areas of the diocese.  Many of the chapels built by the Society and dedicated by the bishop in 1915 were totally destroyed or seriously damaged by the winds of the storm. 

Articles in the local newspapers and in the Southern Messenger, the Catholic newspaper serving all of Texas, noted that more than 16 facilities were badly damaged.  Some of the new churches were a total loss after only short use. 

Most Precious Blood in Calallen, Sacred Heart in Pettus, Our Lady of Consolation in Vattman, St. Catherine’s at Los Reyes, St. Clement at Guajillo, St. Joseph’s at Palito Blanco, St. Francis at La Gloria, Sacred Heart in Alice and the church and rectory of St. Gertrude’s in Kingsville were all totally lost. 

This was a major blow to the bishop and community, and this hurricane and the influx of Mexican refugees were only be the first of a number of trials that drove the young bishop to submit his resignation to Pope Benedict XV while in his ad limina visit in 1919, after only seven years as bishop. On March 26, 1920, the pope accepted his resignation for health reasons.