 He was the founder and first director of the Pastoral Institute at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.In an effort to help the American Catholic clergy connect with the Hispanic population, he joined with Patrick Flores, an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, in founding the Mexican-American Cultural Center (now the Mexican American Catholic College) in 1972.It provided programs to teach religious leaders to think and serve from a Hispanic perspective, that they might better serve their growing congregations of Hispanic Catholics.