A New Franciscan Missionary for Texas

Bishop Robert Octavio Gonzalez, OFM, served as Coadjutor Bishop before becoming the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. Archived Photo

As the world prepared for the end of the second millennium in 2000, hearts were filled with both joyous anticipation and a degree of fearful anxiety. Some predicted dire times, the failure of computers and all systems dependent on them, even the second coming of Christ. The people of the Diocese of Corpus Christi too were anxiously awaiting a change in its spiritual leader.

Bishop Robert Octavio Gonzalez, OFM, was welcomed to the Diocese of Corpus Christi as coadjutor to Bishop Rene Gracida in 1995. His appointment marked the return of Franciscan missionaries, who had brought the faith to Texas and the American Southwest. Bishop Roberto, as he preferred to be called, served as coadjutant for two years until the retirement of Bishop Gracida in April 1997, at which time he assumed full responsibilities as bishop.
These were challenging years because of a highly publicized investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office of the Kenedy Memorial Foundation and its board of directors. Because of changes in allocation of the foundation’s funds–as a result of the investigation–the diocese could no longer depend on the same amount of funds it had received in the past decade and found itself in need of trimming its budget by about $3 million and cutting its staff by about 50 employees.

Bishop Roberto shouldered the task of bringing about an amiable solution to some difficult problems. In this work and in his brief tenure as bishop he set a deeply personal, humble and soft-spoken tone as a shepherd, true to his Franciscan heritage.

Robert O. Gonzales was born in New Jersey, the eldest of nine children. However, his parents returned to Puerto Rico and it was there Bishop Roberto received his early education. After completing preparatory studies, he was accepted as an affiliate of the Franciscan Order in 1970 and professed his first vows two years later at St. Francis Friary in Brookline, Massachusetts.

While still in studies for the priesthood, young Franciscan Roberto was assigned as a bilingual teacher at the Charles Street Jail in Boston, then as an organizer for the United Farmworkers Union in Washington, DC, before making his solemn profession of vows in the Franciscan Order. After completing his theological studies he was ordained to the priesthood in 1977 and began a ministry that involved him in parish and diocesan assignments as well as further studies in sociology. He completed a master’s in 1980 and then a doctorate in 1984 at Fordham University in New York.

Pope John Paul II acknowledged his pastoral and theological expertise by appointing him an auxiliary bishop of Boston in 1988. At that time he became the youngest Roman Catholic bishop in the country. With years of service in the Archdiocese of Boston as well as on numerous committees of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Gonzalez already had ample experiences when he again received the call from Pope John Paul II in 1995 to serve as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

His immediate focus upon arrival in Corpus Christi was to address the debt. He met with numerous lay, religious and clergy groups to get insights and suggestions in an effort to draw upon the experiences and wisdom of many who had been a part of the diocese for more years than he had been a priest.

As parishes and religious communities prepared to celebrate the Great Jubilee in 2000, he offered the cancellation of debts in the spirit of the Jubilee Year as described in Sacred Scripture. Some 20 parishes and schools in the diocese found relief of daunting burdens as they were notified that their financial debts to the diocese had been either partially or totally forgiven. The Debt-Reduction Committee recommended a total of $1.2 million in forgiveness to the Diocesan Finance Council, which advised the bishop. The council and bishop gave unanimous approval.

A further preparation for the Great Jubilee was the completion in 1999 of a self-study of the diocese designed to better assess the needs of the area and make recommendations for the coming millennium.

In 1998 Bishop Roberto was present along with many other prelates to concelebrate with Pope John Paul II at the Sunday Mass in the plaza which the pope repeatedly referred to by its original name—the Jose Marti Square of Havana. Archived Photo

Meanwhile, Bishop Roberto continued to be quite active on the national and international scene of the church, particularly on behalf of the Church in Cuba. From the time of his work as an auxiliary bishop of Boston, Bishop Roberto had made multiple trips to Cuba and had met with Fidel Castro in efforts to serve as a representative of the Hispanic bishops of the Americas who sought to aid the Church in Cuba as well as seek release of political prisoners.

Bishop Roberto also encouraged financial aid from some of the parishes in the Diocese of Corpus Christi for needs of their brothers and sisters in Cuba. The bishop, along with many other prelates, concelebrated with Pope John Paul II at a Sunday Mass on Jan. 25, 1998 in the Jose Marti Square in Havana. More than 300,000 Cubans were present for that Liturgy and to hear the words of the Holy Father.

Bishop Roberto was also quick to offer aid to those in Honduras devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1997. In December of that year he personally toured the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and met with the homeless and those still rebuilding. While visiting the capital, Bishop Roberto presented Archbishop Oscar Rodriguez with funds collected by all the bishops of the United States. Meanwhile, in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Jim Trammel and Msgr. Robert Freeman–who had personally surveyed damage in Honduras–supervised the collection of some 29,000 cubic feet of donated clothing, food and supplies that were shipped to Central America in January 1998.

As a son of St. Francis, Bishop Roberto also sympathized with the plight of those from Mexico and Central America driven by desperation to seek work in the United States. Many died of dehydration and starvation on their journey, and the bishop welcomed the gesture of the Kenedy Ranch, which donated a portion of land for the Christian burial of undocumented immigrants who had died in Kenedy County, unknown and far from family.

The bishop also sought to address some critical needs in the diocese through the help of an organization of lay people known as “The Bishop’s Guild” which met for the first time on April 21, 1999 at the home of Lawrence Wood. The Guild, which still meets regularly for social and religious functions, has provided funds for Catholic Youth Education, parochial school scholarships, the enculturation and support of our diocesan international priests, Catholic Charities, aid to immigrants and disaster relief to name a few of their beneficiaries.

Archbishop Roberto with Blessed Pope John Paul II. Archived Photo

Bishop Roberto’s attention became divided, however, when on March 26, 1999 he was appointed the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico while remaining administrator of the Diocese of Corpus Christi until a new bishop could be appointed. From March 1999 to March 2000 he found it necessary to spend most of his time shouldering his new responsibilities in San Juan, while delegating to vicars in Corpus Christi the responsibility of addressing the immediate needs of the diocese as it prepared to welcome a new millennium and a new bishop.