San Jose Missions

The San José Mission group was founded at the request of Very Reverend Wesley J. Donahue, C.S.C., Superior General. The Provincial at that time, Rev. James Burns, C.S.C. send Father Alfred Mendez, C.S.C. as the first pastor in 1939.

Generally this mission field covered Travis County south of the Colorado River and the northern part of Hayes County. That would consist of about 2,000 square miles. The people to be served were exclusively Latin Americans of Mexican descent, since St. Ignatius was just founded to care for the Anglo Catholics in that same territory.

Father Mendez resided at St. Edward's University. There was one small church already in existence, Our Lady of Guadalupe, at Garfield. That was built by the Mexican people themselves sometime in the early 1920's. In early 1939 the task at hand was to build a small church for the Mexicans in South Austin.

Two lots were purchased at the corner of West Mary and South Third. Stone masons of the Mission were hired, and the pretty little church was completed in 1940. (Due to the death of Archbishop Droessarts, San José and two other churches were dedicated by Archbishop Lucey in 1941).

The first to be appointed assistant to Father Mendez was Father James. W. Donahue, C.S.C., formerly Superior General of the Congregation. That same year of 1939, Father Alfred Send, C.S.C. was also named assistant.

Plans were made in 1940 for two more mission churches. Both were completed in 1941: San Francisco of Creedmoor and Santa Cruz of Buda. That made four churches in all: Our Lady of Guadalupe in Garfield, San José, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. These churches were situated on highways and were more or less centrally located according to the census of those years. That still holds true.

In 1940 the health of Father Donahue took a turn for the worse; Father Thomas Culhane, C.S.C. was sent in his place. A year later Father Send was appointed to teach at St. Edward's University, leaving two missionaries in the San José Missions. In 1943 Father Peter Mueller, C.S.C. was added to the priests working in those missions. The latter was sent to St. Helen's missions in Georgetown in 1943 as pastor there. In 1945 Father Peter Mueller, C.S.C. returned to San José, replacing Father Culhane who was transferred to St. Helen's Missions in Georgetown. Father James Donnelly, C.S.C. became second assistant at San José in 1946. Father Joel C. Atwood, C.S.C. replaced Father Donnelly in 1947, and the latter became chaplain at St. Charles Boys' Home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1948 Father Elmer Rupp, C.S.C. replaced Father Mueller, and Father Joseph Houser, C.S.C. was sent as pastor in place of Father Mendez.

Thus ended a pastorate that inherited a little Mexican church at Garfield (Our Lady of Guadalupe), that had three churches blessed the same year of 1941, and built the fifth church of San José missions at Montopolis in 1946. This church was called Nuestra Señora de La Luz, or Our Lady of Light. Montopolis, called after the bridge of that name spanning the Colorado River, became part of the City of Austin 1948.

At the beginning of that eight year period of the pastorate of Father Mendez, there would have been probably 300 Mexican families at most. South Austin alone, or people who attend San José Church, now number 325 families in the year 1956. There were 1,230 baptisms. San José would now have more than that in a same eight year period, merely making comparisons to show the increase in families. Comparisons for the entire area comprising the San José Missions at that time are not too easy, however, because, as we shall see, these Missions were divided. However, that same area today has more than 800 families.

In 1948 the San José rectory was started in construction about October 1st. Fathers Frank Weber, Elmer Rupp, Joel Atwood, and Anthony Weber did the building, while Father House replaced Father Frank Weber unofficially in Holy Cross parish during working hours. (Father Anthony Weber was on sick leave from Dacca.) The rectory was occupied March 7, 1949.

For the three years up to 1951, the three priests in the San José Missions purchased halls for three of the missions, established sodalities, organized doctrina or classes in catechism, held numerous fiestas to pay the modest debts. They also made appeals in the North for all our Texas Missions, since the procuratorship went with the pastorate at San José since 1947. In summer, the three priests replaced those of other Missions, as the priests there took their vacations. We had to have a schedule of fewer Masses in these Missions in summertime.

In 1951 Rev. John Driscoll, C.S.C. replaced Father Atwood, who was transferred to the St. Mary's Missions in Lampasas. By mid-year, the Provincial, Rev. Theodore J. Mehling, C.S.C. during his visited asked if Father Atwood might be sent to Chile. Fr. Atwood and his superior, Father Houser, willing to help the Provincial, gladly consented. In all of that changing, Father Rupp was transferred to the St. Mary's Missions in Lampasas, replacing Father Atwood. This was in January. At the end of March, Father Charles A. Delaney, C.S.C. arrived from Chile to begin his new appointment to San José.

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