Gonzagans have tended to claim Father Cataldo for themselves, but he likely would not have returned the favor. He was decidedly 'Sumus primo pro Indianis' [We are here first for the Indians] from start to finish. In his first known letter, written to Jesuit Father General Beckx in 1862, he refers to his 'longing for the missions' from the earliest days of his novitiate. In his last, 66 years later and three weeks before his death, a still strong hand reminds the schoolchildren of St. Francis Academy, Portland, that he needs some of them to follow him as "Missionaries in Slickpoo."
