History

PictureCollecting on August 20, 1962, Bishop Wendelin J. Nold announced the formation of a new parish, dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo.  It was one of six created in the Houston area during a two-year period in order to care more effectively for the needs of a growing population.  The 1,350 families of our new parish came from five established parishes: Assumption, Christ the King, Holy Name, St.Francis of Assisi, and St. Rose of Lima.  Rev. James F. Welsch, was the first Pastor, and he arranged to use the cafetorium of Burbank Elementary School for Sunday Masses.  On Sunday, September 1, 1962, Father Welsch celebrated the first parish Mass in the cafetorium.  Construction on our church began on January 14, 1964 and stood complete by May 30. 

Rev. John Cahoon is our current Pastor and shepherds the 3,000 families that attend St. Charles Borromeo.

Our Patron Saint

St. Charles Borromeo, created a Cardinal by his uncle, Pius IV, when he was only 23 years old, was one of the most prominent men in the Church during the latter part of the sixteenth century.  And although a prince of the Church, he remained always close to the people in his native city of Milan, Italy.

He devoted much of his time to the care of the poor and the sick, and became greatly beloved because of his charity and kindness.  During a great plague in Milan, he led the citizens in a procession while garbed in the robes of penance, and prayed that God would stop the plague.  Soon afterwards, it disappeared.

St. Charles lived in the troubled times following the Reformation.  He worked without ceasing to bring about a true and much-needed counter of reformation within the Church, and sought by the correction of real abuses to bring a halt to the non-Catholic Reformation which was causing great dissension in the Church in Europe.  He is considered, with Pope St. Pius V, St. Philip Neri and St. Ignatius Loyola, one of the four outstanding public men in the Counter-Reformation.  St. Charles was largely responsible also for the success of the Council of Trent and for the administration of the Council's decrees.

The saint is also credited with the beginnings of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine program, and has been designated the patron saint of catechists and the CCD.  Among his other important contributions, St. Charles was the founder of the Diocesan Seminaries.

St. Charles celebrated his last Mass on All Saints Day.  He died November 4, 1584, at the age of forty-six.  His day of death has been designated his feast day.  Because he became well-known through his miracles, Pope Paul V declared him a saint.