Patrick Flores
Encyclopedia
Patrick Fernández Flores (July 26, 1929), is a Roman Catholic cleric and was Archbishop
of San Antonio
from 1979 until 2004. Flores was the first Mexican American
to become a bishop
of the Roman Catholic Church
.
s, in Ganado
, Texas
. In the tenth grade he considered dropping out of school after his father had become ill, but was persuaded to stay after a bishop agreed to finance his education. He worked as a janitor
at a local cantina and decided to make the world a cleaner and more habitable place by becoming a priest
.
He graduated from Catholic Kirwin High School (now O'Connell Consolidated High School) in Galveston, Texas
. He studied at St. Mary's Seminary in La Porte, Texas
and at St. Mary's Seminary in Houston
. He received his divinity degree and was ordained a priest on 26 May 1956 by bishop Wendellin Nold in Galveston
. He then served as a parish priest in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston
.
In the early 1960s, he directed the Christian Family Movement
in the Galveston-Houston diocese and the Bishop's Committee for the Spanish Speaking, a ministry that encouraged bilingual congregations. Later, in October 1969, Flores joined forty-seven other Hispanic priests to establish PADRES
Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos, y Sociales (Spanish
for "Priests Associated for Religious, Education, and Social Rights"), an organization meant to draw attention to the problems of Hispanics in the church and society.
. He was appointed auxiliary to the archbishop of San Antonio. Also in May 1970, Flores was appointed chairman of the Texas State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and that July he became national chaplain for the League of United Latin American Citizens
. In 1972, he was co-founder and honorary chairman of the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio.
In 1978 he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso
and then in 1979 the Archbishop the of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio
, which was, at the time, the largest ecclesiastical province
in the United States.
In 1980, Flores became a member of the Hispanic Caucus Committee, and in 1981, he founded Catholic Television of San Antonio, the first diocesan television station in the United States. In 1997, when Billy Graham
headlined a religious crusade at the Alamodome
, Flores taped radio spots in English and Spanish to promote the event. Graham later credited Flores for the large response from the area's largely Catholic Hispanic community.
Flores' suit against the city of Boerne, Texas
in his bid to expand St. Peter's Church there led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court
decision City of Boerne v. Flores
(1997), which struck down certain provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
of 1993 as unconstitutionally exceeding the powers granted to the Congress
under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment
.
His motto is Laborabo non mihi sed omnibus, "I will work not for myself but for others".
and a legal U.S. resident, held Flores hostage for over nine hours in his office in the Catholic Chancery. Escolero had been arrested for driving with a suspended license and feared that he would be deported. Armed with a fake grenade, he also held the archbishop's secretary Myrtle Sanchez for the first two hours of the stand-off. Police hostage negotiators had been in contact with Escolero throughout the day, but were taken by surprise when he released Flores and surrendered in the evening.
Throughout the crisis, which was extensively covered on live television city residents of many faiths prayed and hoped for a man held in high esteem throughout the community.
After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, Flores retired from his position on 29 December 2004 and became Archbishop emeritus
.
in the future.
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of San Antonio
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio encompasses in Texas.The archdiocese includes the city of San Antonio and the following counties: Val Verde, Edwards, Kerr, Gillespie, Kendall, Comal, Guadalupe, Gonzales, Uvalde, Kinney, Medina, Bexar, Wilson, Karnes, Frio, Atascosa, and McMullen.On...
from 1979 until 2004. Flores was the first Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
to become a bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
.
Early life
Flores was born in 1929 to Patrico and Trinidad Fernandez de Flores, American migrant workerMigrant worker
The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...
s, in Ganado
Ganado, Texas
Ganado is a city in Jackson County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,915 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Ganado is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. In the tenth grade he considered dropping out of school after his father had become ill, but was persuaded to stay after a bishop agreed to finance his education. He worked as a janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
at a local cantina and decided to make the world a cleaner and more habitable place by becoming a priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
.
He graduated from Catholic Kirwin High School (now O'Connell Consolidated High School) in Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
. He studied at St. Mary's Seminary in La Porte, Texas
La Porte, Texas
La Porte is a city in Harris County, Texas within the Bay Area of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 31,880...
and at St. Mary's Seminary in Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. He received his divinity degree and was ordained a priest on 26 May 1956 by bishop Wendellin Nold in Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
. He then served as a parish priest in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston encompasses of ten counties in the southeastern area of Texas: Galveston; Harris; Austin; Brazoria; Fort Bend; Grimes; Montgomery; San Jacinto; Walker; and Waller.The chancery of the diocese is located in Downtown Houston. The Archdiocese's...
.
In the early 1960s, he directed the Christian Family Movement
Christian Family Movement
The Christian Family Movement is a national movement of parish small groups of families that meet in one another’s homes to reinforce Christian values and actively encourage other fellow Christian parents through active involvement with others...
in the Galveston-Houston diocese and the Bishop's Committee for the Spanish Speaking, a ministry that encouraged bilingual congregations. Later, in October 1969, Flores joined forty-seven other Hispanic priests to establish PADRES
PADRES
Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos, y Sociales is a Chicano Catholic priest's organization...
Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos, y Sociales (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "Priests Associated for Religious, Education, and Social Rights"), an organization meant to draw attention to the problems of Hispanics in the church and society.
As bishop and archbishop
On 5 May 1970 he was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Luigi RaimondiLuigi Raimondi
Luigi Raimondi was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints from 1973 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973....
. He was appointed auxiliary to the archbishop of San Antonio. Also in May 1970, Flores was appointed chairman of the Texas State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and that July he became national chaplain for the League of United Latin American Citizens
League of United Latin American Citizens
The League of United Latin American Citizens was created to combat the discrimination that Hispanics face in the United States. Established February 17, 1929 in Corpus Christi, Texas, LULAC was a consolidation of smaller, like-minded civil rights groups already in existence...
. In 1972, he was co-founder and honorary chairman of the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio.
In 1978 he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso
Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso
The Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in West Texas. Covering , it encompasses the Texas counties of El Paso, Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Loving, Presidio, Reeves, Ward and Winkler with approximately 668,000 professing members,...
and then in 1979 the Archbishop the of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio encompasses in Texas.The archdiocese includes the city of San Antonio and the following counties: Val Verde, Edwards, Kerr, Gillespie, Kendall, Comal, Guadalupe, Gonzales, Uvalde, Kinney, Medina, Bexar, Wilson, Karnes, Frio, Atascosa, and McMullen.On...
, which was, at the time, the largest ecclesiastical province
Ecclesiastical Province
An ecclesiastical province is a large jurisdiction of religious government, so named by analogy with a secular province, existing in certain hierarchical Christian churches, especially in the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches and in the Anglican Communion...
in the United States.
In 1980, Flores became a member of the Hispanic Caucus Committee, and in 1981, he founded Catholic Television of San Antonio, the first diocesan television station in the United States. In 1997, when Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
headlined a religious crusade at the Alamodome
Alamodome
The Alamodome is a domed 65,000 seat, multi-purpose facility that is primarily used as a football/basketball stadium and convention center in San Antonio, Texas, U.S...
, Flores taped radio spots in English and Spanish to promote the event. Graham later credited Flores for the large response from the area's largely Catholic Hispanic community.
Flores' suit against the city of Boerne, Texas
Boerne, Texas
Boerne is a city in the Hill Country of Texas in the United States. It is the county seat of Kendall County. Boerne was named in honor of Ludwig Börne, a Jewish German author and publicist, and its population was 10, 471 in the 2010 census. The city is noted for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court...
in his bid to expand St. Peter's Church there led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decision City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 , was a Supreme Court case concerning the scope of Congress's enforcement power under the fifth section of the Fourteenth Amendment...
(1997), which struck down certain provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 , codified at through , is a 1993 United States federal law aimed at preventing laws that substantially burden a person's free exercise of their religion. The bill was introduced by Howard McKeon of California and...
of 1993 as unconstitutionally exceeding the powers granted to the Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
.
His motto is Laborabo non mihi sed omnibus, "I will work not for myself but for others".
June 2000 hostage situation
On 27 June 2000, Nelson Antonio Escolero, a native of El SalvadorEl Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and a legal U.S. resident, held Flores hostage for over nine hours in his office in the Catholic Chancery. Escolero had been arrested for driving with a suspended license and feared that he would be deported. Armed with a fake grenade, he also held the archbishop's secretary Myrtle Sanchez for the first two hours of the stand-off. Police hostage negotiators had been in contact with Escolero throughout the day, but were taken by surprise when he released Flores and surrendered in the evening.
Throughout the crisis, which was extensively covered on live television city residents of many faiths prayed and hoped for a man held in high esteem throughout the community.
After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, Flores retired from his position on 29 December 2004 and became Archbishop emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
.
Film
On October 6, 2007, A Migrant's Masterpiece an hour long documentary depicting Flores' life premiered in San Antonio. Directed by Hector Galan, it seeks to place the archbishop's life in the context of "the history of Latinos in Texas, [and] the Civil Rights Movement in Texas" according to Pat Rogers, communications director for the Archdiocese of San Antonio. The film was funded through private donations to the Archdiocese and uses rare archival film and interviews with the Flores' family. It is set to air on American public televisionPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in the future.
Resources
- Special section - San Antonio Express-News
- Bishop Flores at Catholic hierarchy
- Biography at jrank.org
- Biography at Answers.com