Bishop Drury met challenges of Church in south Texas

As the Second Vatican Council concluded in 1965, the Diocese of Corpus Christi faced a new era. The implementation of the reforms of Vatican II preoccupied the next decades of the Church in south Texas under the administration of Bishop Thomas J. Drury.

The new bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi responded to the challenges and opportunities of those years with new programs and diocesan departments composed of clergy, religious and laity to work with him in a spirit of collaboration.  His motto was “Deo Servire Regnare” (to Serve God is to Reign). 

Mindful of Christ’s message that those who “reign” in God’s kingdom are those who “serve” the needs of their brothers and sisters, Bishop Drury sought to ascertain and respond to the needs of the people of south Texas.  He began his administration with a census to better understand the situation of the people and the scope of their needs.

Over the course of his almost 20 years as chief shepherd of the diocese, he expanded the outreach of the diocese from two to 32 departments. This led to the expansion of the Chancery offices to include the floors used for the parish offices of the Cathedral, necessitating the building of a new Cathedral rectory in 1979 and in the renovations of the former Benedictine Abbey on Lantana as a Diocesan Pastoral Center. 

He established more than 20 new parishes, including Most Precious Blood, St. Paul the Apostle, St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, St. Philip the Apostle and St. Thomas the Apostle in the Corpus Christi area; Our Lady of the Good Counsel and St. Joseph in Kingsville; St. James in Beeville; and four major parishes in Laredo. He dedicated the unique St. Andrew by the Sea on Padre Island, a church without walls, on July 29, 1973. 

While the bishop was able to initiate many new programs such as the diocesan newspaper the South Texas Catholic, Catholic Charities, the Pastoral Council, the Finance Council and the Presbyteral Council in the early years of his administration—there were many others that took longer to develop.

Among other issues he sought to address–as did his predecessors–was the need for more clergy.  He decided to promote local vocations. He gradually stopped soliciting vocations from other countries and sought to develop a more active diocesan vocational department with continued support of the newly established Corpus Christi Minor Seminary and the Diocesan Vocational Directors. Another effort to promote local clergy was the bishop’s implementation of the Second Vatican Council’s directive for the re-establishment of the Permanent Diaconate.

Vatican II called for the three Holy Orders of deacon, presbyter and bishop to be recognized for their unique places in the Church and urged that the diaconate be restored as a permanent office.  Since the Council of Trent, most Catholics knew the diaconate only as a station on the road to priesthood. Before the Second Vatican Council, young men to be ordained as priests served as transitional deacons for only a few days to a month before being ordained priests. 

The revision of the sacrament of Holy Orders called for even those in transitional diaconate to serve in that order for a longer period, such as six months to a year. On May 20, 1977, Bishop Drury ordained the first eight permanent deacons out of a class of 12 for that year and sent them out for parochial and diocesan service. 

The Second Vatican Council also invigorated retreat movements in the Church. Traditional movements like the Schoenstatt and Cursillo continued to grow during this period. For a time, numerous parishes also were the sights of newfound enthusiasm in Christ’s Spirit as the charismatic and the ecumenical movements made their impact at the diocesan and parish levels. 

For younger Catholics, the Diocesan Youth Department sponsored the SSCA (Summer School of Catholic Action, and later Summer School of Christian Apostolate) for a week each summer, hosting hundreds of young adults from throughout the diocese. In December 1976 there was a re-introduction of the youth weekend retreats called SEARCH for Christian Maturity, in which young adults from the age of 16-21 were invited to live their faith with greater dedication and a sense of evangelization to their peers. That program continued steadily for more than 25 years in the diocese and impacted thousands of young people in their formative years. For the young adults in college, the bishop broke ground on a Newman Center at Texas A&I University in Kingsville in September 1971.

The bishop also worked to promote healthy marriages through forms of retreat, counseling through Catholic Charities and initiation of a special Mass to award medals on the Feast of the Holy Family to those celebrating their 25th or 50th wedding anniversaries.

The bishop also worked to fulfill a dream of Bishop Mariano S. Garriga when he broke ground on Sept. 22, 1972 for the construction of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and Convent to promote Eucharistic devotion in the diocese. One of the last things that Bishop Drury did was begin construction on Villa Maria, a residential home for Catholic senior citizens on Saratoga Boulevard.

The years of Bishop Drury’s service also witnessed some special celebrations, including the centennial of the Incarnate Word Sisters in Corpus Christi in 1971, the 125th anniversary of the Corpus Christi Cathedral parish in 1978 and the 200th anniversary of the United States of America in 1976. These historical moments were celebrated with special Masses that invited the people of the diocese to reflect upon its rich heritage and growth. 

Bishop Drury also experienced his share of the cross of Christ in some of the trials of those years. There were the struggles to adjust to the changes in parish life after Vatican II.  There were the divisions precipitated by the war in Vietnam and the cultural revolution of the 1960s. South Texas was not immune to the problems that beset the rest of the United States. 

Moreover, there was the ongoing issue of the estate of Sarita Kenedy East. Beginning with Mifflin and Petra Kenedy during the time of Bishop Dominic Manucy, this family was one of the major benefactors of the Church in south Texas through their support of hospitals, schools, parish churches and the programs that served the needy.

When Sarita Kenedy East, granddaughter of Mifflin and Petra, died after a prolonged hospitalization in New York questions about her will arose. She had written it in 1948 and modified it in 1960 with the establishment of the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation, named for her deceased parents. However, just before her death while in the hospital in New York, she named a Trappist priest friend, Brother Leo, as sole member of the foundation.

After her death in 1961, the Diocese of Corpus Christi and a number of other parties claiming an interest in her estate filed a lawsuit disputing Brother Leo’s control of the foundation. A settlement was eventually reached with the bulk of the funds placed with a foundation controlled by south Texans. The estate remained in litigation until 1981 when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear further appeals.  Bishop Drury had endured many fiscal limitations over the years of this legal contest for the sake of the future of the Diocese of Corpus Christi and the larger community of south Texas. 

Bishop Drury had done yeoman’s service in pursuing the rights of the people of south Texas, but it would be those who followed him who enjoyed the greatest fruits of those labors.