Father Taylor was first priest ordained from new diocese

It the winter of 1919, Corpus Christi was still reeling from the vicious hurricane that killed nearly 250 of its residents and demolished more than half the town. Though still too young to be ordained to the priesthood, Charles Joseph Taylor was assigned to preach his first sermon at midnight Mass that Christmas at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

His message was to bring the hope and consolation of Jesus Christ to the people was well received by the congregation that included many family and friends. Everyone was affected by the young man’s eloquence and piety.   

Later that Christmas day, he preached again on “The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.” 

Only 23 and still a deacon, he was serving the seminary as an assistant professor of Greek, which he did until he reached 25 when he realized his lifelong dream to be ordained a priest and an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. 

Taylor was born in 1896 in Beeville, Texas to Frank C. and Adelaide Lovenskiold Taylor. The Taylors baptized their baby into their Episcopal faith.   He was the grandson of prominent citizen and noted lawyer Charles Lovenskiold and his wife Sophia. 

His mother died, when he was only two years old and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Corpus Christi. Emily Lovenskiold Southgate and her husband Thomas welcomed their infant nephew into their home and raised him as their own.

The Southgates were Catholic converts and were active in the parish. In the years that young Charles Taylor was growing up, Thomas Southgate joined the newly organized Knights of Columbus Council while his wife was busy helping the diocese’s first bishop, Bishop Paul Nussbaum, the St. Anne’s Rosary and Altar Society and the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. 

Charles, a studious child, received his early education from the Sisters at Incarnate Word.  When he was 10-years-old, Father Claude Jaillet received him into the Church, and served as his Godfather. When the boy turned 12, he entered the San Antonio Theological Seminary (Oblate). Bishop Arthur J. Drossert, D.D. of San Antonio ordained him 13 years later, in February 1920. 

He was the first man to be ordained from the new Diocese of Corpus Christi as well as the first Oblate from the diocese.  The newspaper reported a touching moment when Msgr. Jaillet knelt at the feet of his Godson to receive his priestly blessing. Father Taylor celebrated his first Mass the next Sunday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Corpus Christi.

Described as a “gifted and consecrated young man,” he began his priestly life, and for the next 40 years worked “to evangelize the poor,” particularly the Spanish-speaking of the Oblate Province. 

He began his service in the Texas Winter Garden area; first in Uvalde, Texas where his parish covered five counties, later in Asherton, which included three counties and then in Crystal City and Big Wells where he built churches and a school in Crystal City. 

In Crystal City, he helped organize the first farm workers union in Texas. In November 1930, relations between the spinach growers and their labor force came to a head.  The workers met with Father Taylor to discuss their grievances.  Out of the meeting the Catholic Workers Union, with Father Taylor as president, was formed to “help the laborers in their difficulty according to their rights and obligations, as taught by the Catholic Church.”

A notice was published in the local newspaper listing conditions the union wanted met, including living wages, prohibitions against child labor, proper notification of acceptance/rejection of work done in the field and direct payment of wages rather than through a contractor. 

Within a week, 25 of the more prominent growers and processing companies in and around Crystal City signed an agreement incorporating the main demands, though not the minimum living wages stipulated.

Father Taylor later ministered in Laredo, Brownsville, San Antonio and in San Fernando, California. He served as the first pastor of St. Joseph’s parish in Laredo. Bishop E. B. Ledvina wrote in 1953, “Since the spiritual needs of the people of St. Augustine Parish in Laredo, Texas, cannot be properly attended to because of the large territory of the parish, I …hereby divide St. Augustine Parish and erect St. Joseph Parish in Laredo as a national parish for the Spanish-speaking faithful.”

Father Taylor accepted the pastorate and began work to build a large vibrant urban parish.  Oblate province sources relate that, “He generously used his family inheritance to help the poor missions and his Oblate province.”

Father Taylor authored the “The Home Prayer Book,” a collection of indulgence prayers which went into several editions and was used by thousands of the faithful.  Although, he was an extremely active missionary, the little spare time he had was devoted to the study of theology and Canon Law.  His less bookish colleagues conferred a “doctorate” on him, and for many of his contemporaries, he was affectionately known as “Doc” Taylor.

Father Taylor died on Oct. 4, 1967.  A prayer card distributed at the time reads “In the priesthood which continues the work of the Apostles, O God, you raised to the priestly dignity your servant Charles; grant also that he may be associated in their eternal happiness.  This we ask of you through Christ our Lord. Amen.”