Adventures in the Archives

It was November 2000 when Fr. Patrick Johnson (PJ), CSP, was in San Francisco visiting with the Paulist Fathers at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral. While walking in the neighborhood, Fr. PJ saw a sign with a series of changing advertising messages and one message caught his eye. It read: “Support bacteria, it’s the only culture some people have.”

He thought about that sign and felt that the month of All Saints and All Souls was an appropriate time to reflect upon some aspects of what culture is for us Catholics. He wrote:

“Our Catholic culture is Christ-centered. We believe that the full revelation of God’s truth and grace is manifest in the mystery of Jesus Christ. Our culture is Apostolic – we directly trace our faith and our Christian way of life to the Apostles.We share a missionary culture – the call to share the good news of God’s love and gifts is at the heart of what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ. Our culture is one of a universal or world church. Neither our Catholic faith nor our Church is limited by the boundaries of time, geography, culture, language or ethnicity. Ours is a culture of hope. We believe the promise that someday we shall experience the fullness of God’s holy presence. Our culture is a culture of life. We believe in the sanctity of all life – from conception to natural death. The cause of justice is part of our Catholic culture. We believe that every human person deserves respect and dignity. Inclusion is a hallmark of our Catholic culture. The grace of God is offered to all, regardless of who they are or where they live. And, finally, our Catholic culture is a rich and cherished one. We have so much to be thankful for.”

Fr. Patrick Johnson, CSP
St. Austin Parish Newsletter
November 2000

In the fall of 2000, the month of November became very special for the students at St. Austin School. With encouragement from then principal John Steven Cisneros, November became a month-long observance of the heroes of the Catholic Church. Classroom doors were decorated in honor of a saint; bulletin boards displayed students’ research and artwork relating to saints, and in one grade, the annual Halloween party was replaced with an All Saints Day party. Each student in the 2nd, 6th and 7th grades researched a specific saint. For the 6th and 7th graders, the research included the saintly garb, which the 2nd graders wore for the school’s All Saints Day liturgy. Here is what some of the 2nd graders learned about the heroes of the Catholic faith:

• Sam King - "John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin and he announced that Jesus was better than him."

• Michael Cimino - St. Vincent de Paul helped the poor and gave away his things. “When I grow up I’m going to do the same things – and also I’m going to grow a beard like him.”

• Michael Marmonti - St. Michael the Archangel fought Satan. “He’s an angel of God. . . I learned that I can be nice and I can be gentlest.”

• Meg Barber - "St. Margaret Mary loved the Sacred Heart of Jesus and it means she loves Jesus."

• Sam Faries - “St. Nicholas helped three poor girls and he had a big beard like Santa Claus.”

• Alison Childres - "St. Elizabeth of Hungary helped the poor and gave the poor food even though she was a queen."

• Zach Crawford - “St. George is the patron saint of Boy Scouts and England. The saints are like heroes because they did a lot of good stuff.”

• Second grade teacher, Marie Herrera, said “the students loved studying about the saints and took it very seriously. Everyone paid attention that day at Mass.”

~Michelle Sneed
St. Austin Parish Newsletter
December 2000

How’s this for a night out in Austin – sampling delectable food samples from 20 different restaurants, hearing live music, participating in exciting auctions, riding the Dillo buses to all the venues and parking free at a nearby garage. This was what the “Taste of Sixth Street” for St. Austin folk. It was an annual major fundraiser of St. Austin parish that featured restaurants and shops on Austin’s historic 6th Street. Tickets were $20-$25 and the proceeds benefitted the St. Austin School expansion fund.

In 1984 the event previewed with a Roaring Twenties Party at the Pecan Street Café that included a buffet dinner, cocktails, entertainment, dancing, and a give away of 20 prizes. Tickets for the Party were $100 per couple and were limited to 150 people. By 1986, auction items included vacation trips, dinners, luxury gifts, discount coupons for purchases at 6th Street shops, catered events, a celebrity tennis match and tuition at St. Austin School.

In 1987, ticket buyers also got a chance to win a beautiful Texas wildflower quilt and matching pillows designed by parishioner Rose Baxter for the National Wildflower Research Center. That year’s proceeds were used to retire the debt on the Parish Center/gymnasium.

In the fall of 1999, Fr. Patrick (PJ) Johnson, CSP, St. Austin Pastor, was attending a meeting of the Diocese’s Building Commission when there was a discussion of the challenges that face our urban, land-locked parish.

Fr. PJ was asked if we had considered just selling our land and moving the parish somewhere else, presumably to the suburbs where we could find more land. Fr. PJ’s answer was interesting and is relevant to our present time of new construction and parish growth. Here are a few of his remarks:

“When the Catholic Church establishes a parish, a local church, it’s in it for the long haul – standing as a witness for all to see of the unchanging, unflinching presence and love of God. It puts down deep roots, even as it remains flexible to the changing needs of the people who approach its doors.
 
More than anything else, St. Austin Parish is an intentional faith community. We gather not because our homes are near each other but because our hearts are. We have labored for more than 90 years to manifest the vision to be ‘a center of missionary activity for Catholics and non-Catholics.’
 
My hope is that we will lay the groundwork for the next one hundred years of our presence in central Austin and the University area.”  (SACP Newsletter, October 1999)
 
Note: In 1999, the parish was involved in rejuvenating and reshaping the parish buildings to better support the ministries of worship, education, service, and community-building. 
 

The St. Austin’s logo has been getting a lot of attention since the start of the pandemic. That’s because it is woven into the face masks the parish made and distributed to members. The parish image and a mission statement took shape in 2007 under the guidance of the Parish Staff and Pastoral Council. At that time, Pope John Paul II urged the Church to be more active through verbal and visual statements.

The parish mission statement introduces St. Austin’s to the world by proclaiming that this parish is “striving to manifest God’s transforming love in the world.” The next step was to create a visual introduction for the parish. Since the parish’s beginning in 1908, we have been known as St. Austin, after the great Roman missionary, St. Augustine of Canterbury. This monk and his band of missionaries brought the Gospel message to the whole of southern England in 597.

One symbol stands out from this story – the mighty oak tree. Augustine and his followers were greeted under the branches of a great oak by King Ethelbert when they landed in England. In the symbolic language of the Anglo-Saxon world, the oak tree stands as a prime expression of hospitality. The committee planning the new graphic image saw the oak tree as a fitting expression of our parish community.

The church logo on the pandemic masks include the marks of this parish: the name of our patron saint, our oak tree symbol of hospitality, and the cross of Christ. Wear your mask for good health.