Bishop Ledvina: “The Great Builder”

The first decade of the Diocese of Corpus Christi had been hard on its first shepherd, Bishop Paul Nussbaum, who suffered numerous painful experiences that slowly broke his stamina. What the diocese needed at this point was a strong worker, ready to build up people, structures and programs.  The people of south Texas were not disappointed in the arrival of its next bishop, Emmanuel Boleslaus Ledvina who came to be known as “the great builder.”

Bishop Ledvina provided stability for the next three decades, working to build chapels, schools and social services while also building up the faith of Catholics throughout the diocese. 
Bishop Ledvina was no stranger to the Diocese of Corpus Christi. He had visited frequently and traveled over south Texas extensively during the 12 years since its erection as a diocese while he served as General Secretary of the Catholic Church Extension Society, headquartered in Chicago. 

The Extension Society magazine characterized Bishop Ledvina as the “quartermaster general of church extension” with “a methodical mind, a sense of fair play and justice in managing employees, integrity that has no flaw in it, and a cool head that would put out any flame of excitement even if it were licking through the wood of his office chair.” That energy and work ethic of 52-year-old Bishop Ledvina was just what the doctor ordered at a time when the area of south Texas was growing by leaps and bounds.

Donations made through this society’s efforts had built many of those small chapels during the time of Bishop Nussbaum, and then Father Ledvina had found ingenious ways to bring the Church to the people through his design and use of chapel cars that could travel the back roads and chapel railroad cars that brought Mass and instructions to any community along the tracks that now interlaced throughout south Texas. 

His reception to the diocese was a grand affair, including a Mass at the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral at which local priest, Father Mark Moeslein, C. P. preached.  The next day the bishop was reminded of the challenges ahead when he went to thank Father Moeslein for his sermon, visiting him at Holy Cross parish where the small sacristy served as his living quarters at the time.  One of his companions later noted in an article that Father Moeslein “entertained us at lunch…a warmed-up can of tomatoes and some stale crackers.”

During his administration as chief shepherd the number of Catholics in the diocese increased from 96,000 to 225,000, the number of parishes from 32 to 64, the number of priests from 32 to 100, the number of sisters in various orders from 125 to more than 350 and the number of parochial schools from 25 to 40.

Bishop Ledvina brought in the Benedictines to construct a new boys high school—the Corpus Christi College Academy.  He oversaw to the construction of more than 50 new churches, 53 mission chapels and 47 rectories. He then began work on his crowning jewel—the Cathedral of Corpus Christi, dedicated in 1940. 

He led during some turbulent times with the resurrection of the KKK, strong in a spirit of anti-Catholicism. He provided spiritual strength as the people of south Texas, both Catholic and non-Catholic, sent their sons and daughters off to a war that engulfed the world in the early 1940s. 

Probably Bishop Ledvina’s biggest achievement in his first 10 years of leadership was the establishment of the Corpus Christi College Academy for the high school education of boys.  In 1925, John Dunn donated acreage from his original 40-acre homestead for the purpose of Catholic education.  The building project began in 1926 the school opened in 1928. 

Initially the Bishop had sought the help of the Holy Cross Fathers who served in St. Edward’s of Austin and Notre Dame of Indiana.  When they declined because of limited personnel, the bishop turned to the Benedictines.

At the same time he also encouraged and supported financially the Sisters of the Incarnate Word in their efforts to build a new brick convent and school in the late 1920s. 

In an effort to support some of the poorer members of his flock he also asked the Carmelite Sisters of St. Joseph and Sacred Heart to come to Corpus Christi to help him establish what became known as the Carmelite Day Nursery, a haven for poor Mexican children whose mothers needed to work during the day. 

The first buildings that housed the nursery were relics of other days—the old home of Bishop Verdaguer and the old rectory building of the Cathedral. The sisters began arriving in 1923, and their program grew to serve a pressing need over the next decades, with an average of 100 children enrolled.  Also they eventually reached out to the other end of the age spectrum, opening the Mt. Carmel Nursing Home for elderly Catholics seeking assisted living facilities.

Finally, in the first decade of his administration Bishop Ledvina sought to increase the number of secular priests.  When he arrived only nine secular priests served with the aid of numerous members of religious orders.  Like those before him, the bishop went “home” for assistance. 

Bishop Jean-Marie Odin had sought priests from his native France.  Bishop Peter Verdaguer had sought priests from his native Spain.  Bishop Nussbaum had sought priests from his own congregation—the Passionist.  And now Bishop Ledvina appealed to the alumni of his seminary days in Indiana. 

Men like Msgr. Albert Schmitt, Msgr. George Scecina, and Msgr. William Hennel of Evansville, Indiana answered the call.  By 1939, there were 43 secular priests and 11 young men studying for the priesthood.  The Bishop was seeking to build not only chapels and schools, but also the ministers needed to nurture the faith of the people of south Texas.