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from barrio anonymity to autonomy and national recognition
In 1912 Bishop Nicholas Aloysius Gallagher, Bishop of Houston, Texas, invited the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) and the Sisters of Divine Providence (CDP) to come help with the immigrant faithful. The OMIs and the CDPs agreed to come and the priests took charge of several parishes while the Sisters staffed the parish schools.
Although the MCDPs, founded by Sister Mary Benitia, have contributed much to the faith formation of Hispanics in the southwest and particularly native-born Texan, Tejanos, little has been published on this first and only religious order of Mexican American women founded in the U.S.. This essay explores the founding of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence as a filial adjunct of the Congregation of Divine Providence spanning from 1915 with the conception of the idea of founding an order on to 1930 to 1966, the orders move toward self-government and independence concluding with 1967 to 2000 with the significance of the MCDPs in the history of the Catholic Church of Texas.
One of the consequences of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo between Mexico and the United States was the creation of a new mestizo people, who were on Mexican territory prior to the treaty and, after the treaty, became Mexican Americans. The mestizos, who were Catholic, became the responsibility of the U.S. Catholic Church. It was almost a century before evangelizadoras (evangelizers) were officially recognized by the Roman Church. Events in the history of the U.S. and Mexico increased the Tejano population and thereby actualized a need for greater attention to Tejano and Mexicano immigrants needs.
The Revolution in Mexico began in 1910 when Francisco I. Madero secured the presidency; after a decade of fighting, and during Alvaro Obregns 1920-1924 term, the fighting ceased temporarily. The Mexican Revolution, over time, drove nearly a million Mexicans out of the country and across the northern border. The influx of Mexican immigrants affected the economy, the culture, and the Church in the United States.
Gilberto Hinojosa, Church historian, records the number of immigrants from 1900 to 1939, demonstrating the balloon effect during and immediately after the revolutionary activity in Mexico:
| 1900-09 | 31,200 | 1940-49 | 56,200 |
| 1910-19 | 185,000 | 1950-59 | 273,800 |
| 1910-29 | 498,000 | 1960-69 | 441,800 |
| 1930-39 | 32,700 |
Transitioning from Houston to San Antonio
The Depression Years
| Working among the very poor during the hard days of the Depression, all his energy and ability were called into play to help his suffering parishioners. He was one of the leaders getting a large housing project for his district; he had established a community center and a clinic for the poor and the needy and fostered many organizations for the betterment of young and old. |
| the cry of distress, and the period of unemployment is still with us, but we must not cease to pray, nor to humble ourselves, and to return more and more to a simpler way of life. This cross is as nothing, in its infliction and endurance, compared to the scourge God often laid on his chosen people in days gone by. |
Religious orders were concerned for the poor growing poorer during the Depression years. Sister Mary Benitia busied herself attending to the peoples needs. Sister Mary Paul Valdez writes: At the time of the Depression, Sister Benitias activities for the needy were well known in Houston. As the number of people in need grew, so did the demands on Sister Benitias time and energy.
The consequences of poverty and migration played significantly in the organization of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence. La Madre Benita arrived in Houston at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, becoming provider and consoler for the Mexican population as she begged from merchants and organizations for needed food, supplies, clothing, and anything else she could obtain. The Mexicans who immigrated into the United States found at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish a haven amidst the transition into the new culture. Beyond sensitivity to the material and spiritual needs Valdez adds, In that parish, the pastor, Father Esteban De Anta, OMI and Sister Benitia, were a strong and influential figures in the whole setting. They did not try to strip the Mexicans of their cultural and religious practices nor made them accept American customs.
While Sister Benitia was at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish she realized that the needs of the Mexican and Mexican American children and their displaced families were far greater than the parochial school could meet. She organized a group of young Mexican American women, the Society of St. Theresa, on October 15, 1928. Her Teresian society ministered to the needs of Mexicans in the parish that were not associated with the parish school. The organization had extern members who lived in their homes and intern members who committed to live together in a home provided by Sister Benitia. As the spiritual guide for the young society, Sister Benitia composed a Rulebook for their spiritual and ministerial development. Sister Benitias Rulebook for the Teresian society contained the primary elements for what would be the MCDP Constitution. Further, through the organization, Sister Benitia profiled the type of member that would be needed for the ministry to Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the future order.
Sister Benitia left her work and Teresian organization in Houston in 1938 but within two years she replicated her ministerial approach in San Antonio. In the Alamo city she found unmet needs of equal or greater proportion as had been in Houston. Similar to the 1920s Post Revolution immigrant influx into Houston, WWII drew Mexican Americans, because of the defense installations and industries, into San Antonio. At the same time the bracero program, an agreement between the United States and Mexico, brought Mexicans across the border for agricultural jobs, causing a greater influx of displaced Mexican Americans to leave the border areas for the cities looking for better work opportunities. The greater the numbers, the more serious the need for catechists to help with the needs of the migrants.
The needs of the Hispanics in the San Antonio Archdiocese did not go unnoticed by Robert Emmet Lucey who was installed as Archbishop of San Antonio on March 27, 1941. Archbishop Lucey had served as Bishop of Amarillo for seven years before his move to San Antonio, and before his appointment to Amarillo had served as the first United States Director of Religious Education for the diocese of Los Angeles under Bishop Cantwell. The Archbishop was aware of the social issues facing Hispanics and so was a sympathetic friend to Hispanics and a great advocate for catechetics.
| Within four days after his installation as Archbishop of San Antonio, Lucey wrote to Sister Benitia Vermeersch of the Congregation of Divine Providence to express his interest and support for the catechetical work which she and her associates were doing among the poor Hispanics in San Antonio. |
| The suggestion that the society be organized under the friendly cooperation of the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence seems to imply that the movement is being fostered by a mature person or persons other than our Sisters, with whom we could cooperate. The idea had its inception in the realization by our own Sisters of the necessity of more help in the teaching of catechism to poor Mexicans, and the possibility and feasibility of using their own people for the work. Our Sisters who have been working with the catechists have no desire to separate themselves from our congregation, and they and we are convinced that it would not further this work or our own established works to endeavor to incorporate a large number of Latin-Americans in our own Congregation. The separate organization would enable us to select from our own sisters those who are able to adapt themselves to the cultural pattern of Latin-Americans and who would therefore be acceptable to them. |
After considering much information and several years of re-drafting the Constitution Archbishop Lucey submitted a request for the approval of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence to His Excellency Amleto G. Cicognani, Apostolic Delegate in Washington, D.C. on December 3, 1945. In addition to Luceys letter were included Mother Angeliques petition, a summary of the lives of Mother Philothea and Sister Benitia, along with a brief history and purpose of the society of the Missionary Catechists and a manual of spiritual exercises used by the Sisters. Only two months after the request was made the approval from Rome was given on February 7, 1946 and the letter arrived in San Antonio on March 29, 1946.
| On that Friday, March 29, .Sister Benitia was alone at Providence House when the news arrived. She immediately went to the little chapel to thank GodThen Sister went out to meet each Catechist returning home from the Immaculate Heart of Mary centers. Then she walked to the front of Providence House on Dwyer Avenue to meet the Catechists returning from San Fernando Cathedral centers.and to each one she said: Go to the chapel and thank God. Your Rule has been approved. Her eyes were full of tears. |
Throughout the years following the approval the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence increased in numbers, expanded their living space, and multiplied their ministries. Inwardly, they became more skilled in the performance of their ministry and also grew in their spirituality.
By 1951, 1five years after the approval, the MCDPs had outgrown the house on Dywer Street and expanded into a two-story building, St. Andrews convent at 2318 Castroville Road. Several army barracks converted into dormitories, a chapel and later an all-purpose building for meetings and recreation were built on the nine acres of land.
Partly because parochial schools were closing and the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was an alternative for Catholic faith formation, the Church showed greater interest and appreciation for catechesis. In 1964, Vatican II Documents reiterated the importance of catechesis that had been noted in the canons of 1917. The document on the Bishops Pastoral Office read: Pastors should bring the faithful to a full knowledge of the mystery of salvation through catechetical instruction, and should establish the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. (30:2). Meanwhile the numbers of Catechists were growing and the requests for them became greater than what could be met by the order.
By the end of 1960 there were forty-six professed MCDPs working in twenty-one missions. In addition to Catechists in the missions, there were other members managing the domestic work at St. Andrews Convent, the central house, and some at Providence House on Dyer Street. During the sixties, new missions were opened at an average of one per year.
Sister Benitias spirituality was marked by frequent devotions like those to the saints. In her Admonitions she mentions several saints of which Santa Teresa de Avila appears to be a favorite. Her devotion to Santa Teresa was also shown in the name she chose for the society she formed in Houston, as well as her choice of October 15th, the feast of St. Theresa, as the date for special dedications. A second devotion common to Sister Benitia were litanies, which she included in the daily prayer book she compiled for the catechists, and her prayer for travelers that she and the sisters recited everytime they traveled. Following Sister Benitias devotional spirituality, MCDPs faith expressions include rituals, litanies, music, devotional prayers, poetry, dichos and storytelling. The charism of the community is supported culturally by the ethnic homogeneity of the order and by choice of religious charism, making for an apostolic spirituality that is strong, natural to them, and profound. Recently, the Sisters have broadened an understanding of their spirituality with their own reflections and growing insights.
MCDPs have claimed their Mexican American spirituality with all its elements. For example, relationality is basic to the Mexican American culture, the MCDP spirituality, mediated through the Sisters culture, is relational. This element is observed in their MCDP apostolic work. Because MCDPs are few and parishes do not hire more than one director of religious education, the sisters are often missioned alone or sometimes by twos. The support the Sisters receive from the laity in ministry and in friendship frequently bond them with the people they serve and become as powerful a link as one has with family. The relationship dimension in the lives of the sisters is facilitated by the approach to their ministry in home visitation enabling greater association with families. The work of catechesis and evangelization entails working with volunteers and collaborating with laity which also encourage affinity with others in order to succeed in programs that are contingent in shared motivation and friendship and not on paid services. The many stories of how the charism of providence becomes incarnated in the lives of the sisters is another testimony of how spirituality is understood as Gods favor manifested to them through others kindness and presence.
Sister Benitia greeted the Sisters with Estas Contenta? (Are you happy?). Her personal question was her way of connecting with the Sisters and of reminding them joy and happiness was the way one related and served. For Sister Benitia the other always was the poor. She wrote: I have loved the poor in life and will love them in death. I hope to be able to help until the end of time. As part of the spiritual patrimony of the foundress and the experience of extended families, MCDPs enjoy a relationship with the poor and to one another that predominates in their expressed spirituality.
The MCDP spirituality rooted in the Mexican American reality and its focus on Our Lady of Guadalupe is aligned closely to that of the people with and for whom they minister, and so the catechesis takes the form of what is relevant and understandable to the people. One catechist writes: Knowing the culture and popular piety of El Pueblo, we utilized this means for evangelizing.
The 1960s were a time of claiming identity and group-determination for Mexican Americans. It was the era of liberation theology, consciousness raising by Csar Chvez, the Chicano movement, and advocacy for greater efforts in Hispanic ministry within the Church. MCDPs were part of the peace marches and, amidst the acompaamiento with the disenfranchised, they, too entered a process of self-determination and endeavored to enhance full collaboration with the laity in catechesis. Working side by side with the laity since their beginnings, MCDPs entered a model of sharing leadership with the laity through collaboration. Perhaps it was their own apostolic approach to leading that led them respond to the invitation to become independent and therefore more equal partners with the parent Congregation.
Prior to 1967 the order had a double line of authority in their Constitution. Whereas the MCDPs had a charism, ministry, target audience, spirituality, and ethnic culture that were different from the Sisters of Divine Providence, they shared a common Superior General. On the CDP Superior General rested the responsibilities of MCDP assignments to mission, dismissals and acceptance of members, and other important decisions within the order.
Mother Amata Regan, who served from 1955 to 1967, recognized the need and readiness of the MCDPs to become a self-governing and independent as an order. The MCDPs had no voice anywhere unless it was in their out-of-town missions, where they usually managed everything once they were there. At the CDP general Chapter of 1967, the decision was made to allow the MCDPs to experiment with their own leaders.
Sister Amata and her council appointed the first MCDP administration team in 1967. She issued a letter listing the appointed leaders for the experimental government. The MCDPs were challenged to transfer the administrative skills they had learned in the missions among the laity and to use their leadership capacities among their own. The experiment had formidable tasks that were desperately difficult. To earn the confidence and trust as leaders among peers, to adopt their own leadership style, to continue to be effective in ministry, and to identify the issues that needed attention in the community were only a few of the tasks before the appointed leaders.
The1967 one-year experiment proved feasible for the order and the following year the MCDPs elected an administration of seven: a superior, four councillors, a secretary and a treasurer. Of the seven elected in 1968 for the central government of the order, five had served in the experimental government, which was a considerable affirmation of the experiment and of the wisdom of Mother Amata.
| picture yourself in a troubled world that is greatly in need of you. We experience ourselves as a divided world today, a world threatened by conflict: man against man, race against race, party against party. Because you, too form part of this troubled world, you, dear sisters, have a special mission.you have so much to give of that which so many are wanting to receive. |
All was not ideal though, the largest loss of members in the community happened in the wake of Vatican II. Although for the MCDPs this exodus happened during the experimental year with self-government, this was the time that all communities were losing members. During the 1967 term, 27 professed MCDPs left the order. That year there were 84 professed Catechists plus novices and pre-novices with an average age of 30. By 1972 there were 65 professed members plus novices.
The young age of the sisters facilitated vitality and enthusiasm for the ministry. Diverse areas of service had multiplied as parish catechesis pushed its edge into diocesan offices, mobile teams, and collaborative projects over seas. Through home visitation the Sisters became aware of other needs; thus, some member moved into other helping professions. They began to prepare for counseling, education, nursing, and social work.
The MCDP catechetical approach of the early years continued with creative teaching methods. In the early days Sisters remembered going through the neighborhoods gathering the children to the sound of a drum. Music and ritual continued to be part of catechetical technique for the MCDPs and although no longer drawing children with drums, they visited the homes to remind the parents to send the children to CCD classes.
One noted MCDP catechetical project was a collaborative program, the Masters Catechists, developed in 1973 by Victoria Pastrano, MCDP and Father Harry Schuckenbrock, OMI. The program was built on three faith formation phases: pre-evangelization, evangelization and catechesis leading to conversion. The Masters Catechists Program was offered in both English and Spanish several times in the year through the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the dioceses of Corpus Christi and Brownsville. It was extremely successful for over a decade reaching thousands of participants throughout the state.
A second MCDP project that was seeded in 1986 was a facility that would meet the spiritual and social needs of Hispanics in the areas of evangelization, literacy, and counseling in the westside of the city. The Sisters who had degrees in counseling and social work initiated the discussion and the dream became a reality in 1995 when the Benitia Family Center was established in San Antonio. The first and current director of the Center became Sister Mara del Carmen Snchez and Sister Rosita Lopez became full time counselor. With the collaboration of many volunteers and other MCDP friends the Benitia Center has touched many lives through community outreach and advocacy programs.
Discussion on the issue of MCDP affiliation/independence to the CDPs was one of the issues in the 1972 Assembly under Sister Celia Anns Cavazos administrative term. The canonist, Father Fred Sackett, OMI, in a consultation pertaining to the autonomy, referred to the MCDP community as ripe fruit which must fall from its tree. The fruits of the ministry were evident in the number of parishes and diocesan offices that MCDPs served and the growing numbers of degreed members in theology, social work and counseling.
During Sister Rose Carmel Garays term, 1980-1984, the Sisters worked at re-drafting the Constitution of the Order and prepared to re-submit it to Rome. In the Fall of 1984, during Sister Anita de Lunas term, the document was affirmed by the community. Although the issue of affiliation or independence was in the minds of the Sisters, they were not ready to ask Rome the question. In June 1985, the MCDPs decided to initiate the necessary research and make a decision on the issue by November 1987.
It was July 1985, just weeks after the sisters had decided to began the study on the issue of affiliation or independence that a letter from Rome arrived. The Roman leaders were inquiring if the Constitution submitted in the fall of 1984 was to be read in a context of autonomy or did the MCDPs wish to amalgamate with the CDPs? With Rome posing the question and their own questions before them, the Sisters decided to advance the date on the autonomy decision from 1987 to 1986 and communicated thus to Rome.
The sixteen months between July 1985 when the question from Rome arrived until November 1986 when the group gathered to discern the decision were filled with inquiry activity. Leaders in internal ministry were busy with interviews, exploration, communal study, reflection, analysis, consultation, and the members in full-time external ministry also readied themselves for the decision. Throughout the process MCDP leaders consulted with their CDP counterparts.
When the MCDPs, their consultants, and CDP representatives came together to make the decision in November 1986, the community could proudly claim the MCDP ministerial contribution and the expertise developed was already recognized by so many outsiders. The U.S. Catholic bishops called Hispanics to develop their own ministerial models in their 1983 pastoral letter, as did Hispanic leaders in the three national Encuentros of Hispanic Catholics (1972, 1977, 1985). Weighing the blessings and corresponding responsibilities, the Sisters contemplated the question of autonomy. MCDPs recognized themselves as the trained Hispanic leaders called for in the bishops pastoral and in the Encuentros.
The community gathered at the Christian Holiday House in Dickinson, Texas and, confident in the Spirit, after four days of prayer proceeded to vote on the question before them. In the presence of Sister Charlene Wedelich, CDP, co-vicar for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Father Gordon Meyers, SJ, process facilitator, and Sister Thaddea Kelly, PBVM, consultant for the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes in Rome, the vote was cast. The statement on which the Sisters voted was cast in light of the discernment process the Sisters had been following. There had been long periods of reflection, silence, and prayer. The statement read: Gods Spirit, alive and active in my prayer, and in what I hear in the prayer of others, is affirming our Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence community as autonomous. A vote of forty-four in favor and three abstentions decided the new identity for the community.
Given the decision on autonomy, three MCDP Sisters chose to leave the order and join the CDPs. The three transfers were, Sister Mary Paul Valdez, one of the first five catechists and community archivist, Sister Helen Louise Rivas, who had served in the experimental administration and was Director of Hispanic Office in diocese of Dallas, and Sister Marian Angela Aguilar, only MCDP with a doctorate, who taught at Our Lady of the Lake University. The decision of the three to transfer was respected, their departure was harmonious, but the loss of the three vital and significant members was felt.
The communal decision to become autonomous had been made in peace and equanimity. The relationship with the CDPs had been made clearer in the process of dialogue, reflection, support received, and the constant presence of the CDP leaders throughout the process. The MCDP decision was communicated to the Vatican. Along with the communication, some required documents and letters of commendation from each of the twelve local ordinaries, in whose dioceses the community was serving, were submitted in March 1987. The waiting for the response from Rome began.
Some communication had alerted the MCDP leaders that the decision on autonomy would be made during late May or early June. Thus, during the May-June 1989 summer gathering for the order, Sister Carmen Therese Lazo and Sister Anita de Luna, assistant and superior respectively, placed a call to the Vatican from the Diocesan Retreat House in the diocese of Victoria on June 1, 1989. The Sisters reached Sister Sharon Holland, IHM, a member of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes in Rome, who said the decision was final and could be shared with the Sisters.
| Sisters, we have just reached Rome and have received word on our request for autonomy. It is official we, the Missionary Catechists of divine Providence have been erected as a separate Institute of Pontifical Right. |
| I do not know about the Hispanic culture but in the Anglo culture it is very difficult for daughters to relate to their mothers as adults. I feel that is what this relationship, yours and ours, is about right now. You have grown and the time is now to began to relate to each other in a different way. |
| With a common trust in divine Providence we go forth imbued with the same spirit and a confidence which you inspired in us. Sixty years ago you prepared us to respond to the church of the Southwest. Today El Pueblo also joins us in honoring you for your foresight and vision. We gratefully acknowledge and publicly proclaim you as our Founding Congregation. |
| Our Lady of Divine Providence, pray for us, your children. May every Missionary Catechist of Divine Providence be ever grateful to the Sisters of Divine Providence for the great favor they have done for them by affiliating them to the Order and keeping them in their care. May our good Mother of providence keep each Catechist in her own care. This is my wish and prayer. |
The MCDPs, like the Mexican American community, had moved closer to self-determination. In 1991 Sister Anita became the first Latina elected to the presidency of the National Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). MCDPs expressed that this honor was one bestowed on the total community. The MCDP contribution, through me, affected the total congregation. We, MCDPs placed our gift before the Church. In Anitas reflections on the day of the election she recalled the communitys barrio roots, recognized the need to contribute to the broader Church, and called on the Virgin of Guadalupe, La Morenita, for guidance and support as she moved from her barrio dress to global attire.
The MCDPs requested autonomy, believing that what they did for themselves they did for the Mexican American community. In order to empower others to become clearer in their identity and stronger in their leadership, they themselves would need to model such behavior. On September 24,1990, the local ordinaries of Texas, through the Texas Catholic Conference (TCC) recognized the service the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence had rendered to the people in Texas in the field of evangelization and catechesis.
In May 2004 Notre Dame University awarded to Sister Anita an honorary doctorate in recognition of the work of the order for the evangelization of the faithful of the southwest.
Because of the almost 100% Mexican American ethnic identity of the order, the trajectory that the group has followed bears striking similarities to the coming of age of Chicanos/as in the U.S.. The MCDPs moved from their founding as dependent on the Congregation of Divine Providence, to choosing independence, and finally to assuming their full voice. The MCDP story parallels the Mexican American collective experience as guests or aliens in their own territory after 1848, to their quest for recognition and identity, and finally to the self-determination and affirmation of their dignity.
It is an established fact that Hispanic women are the transmitters of the faith within the Mexican American culture and this story lifts up spiritual leaders for Tejanos/as. The rise of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence provides a valuable source for the study of Mexican American faith and culture, ministry and Church, official and popular religiosity, among other areas. These evangelizadoras del barrio allowed themselves to be led, responded to the invitation to assume their voice, accepted the challenge to be spiritual leaders among their own, and thereby have contributed and continue to transmit a rich Mexican American faith to the universal Church.
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