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	50 Years of Faith: Diocese Thriving As a Spiritual Beacon By Becca Nelson Sankey The Standard-Times October 15, 2011 www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/oct/15/roman-catholic-diocese-of-san-angelo-celebrating/ SAN ANGELO, Texas — According to legend, San Angelo was selected as the headquarters for a new diocese encompassing Central and West Texas when Pope John XXIII, originally Angelo, saw his name on a map of proposed territories. Four popes and five bishops later, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Angelo — comprising approximately 37,433 square miles and 29 counties — is marking its 50th anniversary. Though significantly younger than other dioceses in Texas and the United States, the diocese has thrived and continues to serve as a spiritual beacon to its 73 parishes. The pope appoints a bishop to serve in each diocese, said Michael Pfeifer, who has been San Angelo's bishop since 1985. Pfeifer said bishops shepherd and help people grow in holiness and teach the truths of the Bible and the Catholic Church. The bishop, Pfeifer said, typically resides in the city that serves as the diocese's center, so frequent travels to other counties in the diocese are necessary. The diocese was formed from the dioceses of Amarillo, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and El Paso on Oct. 16, 1961, when the bishop's routine journeys from Amarillo to Junction became too arduous, said Jimmy Patterson, director of communication for the San Angelo Diocese. "I wouldn't guess that the bishop in Amarillo in those days traveled as much as (Pfeifer) does, but even just one or two trips a month to the southern parts of the diocese would be really major when you talk about transportation and the way it was in those days," Patterson said. Even after its split from Amarillo and relinquishment of four of its northern counties to Lubbock shortly thereafter, the San Angelo diocese is the largest in Texas in terms of territory. "I don't think we're going anywhere, and we're certainly not going to shrink any because the population doesn't warrant further splitting of the Diocese of San Angelo," said Patterson, who wrote the diocese's commemorative book, "50 Years: The Story of the Diocese of San Angelo." "I think (the diocese will) be around as long as the church is around, and I'm sure that will be as long as we're all around." Pfeifer, originally from Alamo, is the diocese's fifth bishop and succeeded Joseph Fiorenza, who relocated to the Diocese of Galveston-Houston. "In the early days the diocese consisted of a lot of churches that were isolated, and there was no feel of interconnectedness," Patterson said. "It was Bishop Fiorenza and Bishop Leven (San Angelo's third bishop, now deceased) that brought that feeling of 'we are a family.' "Bishop Pfeifer's 26 years is huge; he's brought a feeling of togetherness. The previous four bishops combined don't add up to his tenure." Patterson also credited Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, for the Catholic Church's new direction, a sentiment Pfeifer echoed. "In the past 50 years, there were four popes elected, and that had an impact on our diocese, too," Pfeifer said. "Those were key moments for the whole universal church." In the 1960s the Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II, reinstated the permanent diaconate, which allowed married men to be ordained as deacons. "It brought many new beautiful servants of the Lord for our people," Pfeifer said. Other highlights the diocese has experienced include its formation of the Office of Education and Formation, which has prepared thousands of ministers to serve the church, Pfeifer said. In the youth arena, he said, Pope John Paul II in the 1980s established World Youth Day, which every two years brings together thousands of young people from throughout the world — hundreds of whom have come from the San Angelo Diocese — for spiritual enrichment. In 1970 a program called SEARCH was established in the diocese that allows youth to spend a weekend in prayer. Shortly after its formation, the San Angelo Diocese became the first in the U.S. to organize an English-language Cursillo, separate weekends for men and women designed to deepen their relationship with Christ, Pfeifer said. Even difficult times have paved the way for positivity within the Catholic Church. In 1991 a group of San Angelo priests who foresaw a shortage of their own in the church created the 20-Year Plan, which allowed international priests to serve in U.S. churches. "We received many, many fine priests from many (places) like Africa, India, Mexico," Pfeifer said. In 2002 when the Catholic Church was besieged with allegations of sexual abuse, the San Angelo Diocese was able to renew its focus and faith, the bishop said. "It touched all of us in some way; thank God it was a minimal way here, but it brought us to the realization that we had to do more to be faithful to the Lord," Pfeifer said. The diocese's parishes have survived historically in other ways as well. "50 Years: The Story of the Diocese of San Angelo" is a collection of parishioners' memories of the diocese and its parishes. According to one story in the book, a church was lifted by a tornado, turned 360 degrees and dropped back in the exact location where it had been. Another story in the book tells how a different church also was battered in a storm, but a single beam spared its tabernacle from destruction. Other stories tell of the Knights of Columbus' formation in Abilene to protect priests from the Ku Klux Klan, Patterson said, and bullet holes from the 1930s that still mar a St. Joseph statue in Lorraine. Times of crisis within the diocese, Pfeifer said, tend to reveal the warmth of its parishioners. "I find a deep spirit of faith in people here, and I think those are some of the hallmarks of people in West Texas," he said. The people and the leadership, Patterson said, have been instrumental in sustaining the diocese. "I think there's much more participation in the life of the church at all levels," Pfeifer agreed. "We have men and women who are there — not only just priests and sisters and deacons, but unordained people — who are trained and help with the life of the church and service of the church. "There's been a new effort in the past 25 years to strengthen us as the body of Christ and strengthen the bonds of union with other Christians in this area, people who are not members of the Catholic Church, to create respect and sharing and love among all Christians." As the fourth-youngest in Texas, the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo is "a teenager compared to some of the other dioceses," Pfeifer said. "I believe and I always hope that, even as we get older, (we'll) always be young at heart, have a freshness of new faith and new love."
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