The Parish: 1960-1970
The 1960s continued to reflect the high religious spirit of Holy Souls parish.  On May 26, Bishop Fletcher ordained still another parishioner to the Holy Priesthood.  He is The Rev. Earl J. Booth, son of Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Booth, who has had several pastoral assignments.

By the beginning of the new decade, the impact of Holy Souls parish on the Pulaski Height community -- and beyond -- had become singularly apparent.  Its ecumenical Exceptional School project was winning the plaudits of the city and state.

Parish activities multiplied through the 1960s and Pope John XXIII bestowed his Apostolic Blessing on the parish and its pastor in acknowledgement of a booklet he had received detailing the parish history.

On November 11, 1960, Bishop Fletcher chose Holy Souls parish as the center of a diocesan Apostolate of Prayer, and he appointed Monsignor Allen diocesan director of the movement. 
(The world wide Apostolate of Prayer is a spiritual association of Catholics concerned for their own salvation and anxious to spread the Kingdom of Christ through daily recitation of the Rosary, the daily offering of prayers, works and suffering to Christ in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and through monthly reception of the Sacrament of Penance.)

Vatican Council II, at which Bishop Fletcher was one of the council fathers, brought parish activities to a new pitch during its four sessions from 1962 to 1965.  Holy Souls was among the first parishes in the diocese to introduce lay lectors at Sunday Masses.

In 1965, the year Vatican Council II ended, the parish confraternity of Christian Doctrine instituted a program of Scripture study, and in 1966 Monsignor Allen directed the organization of a parish School Board of nine members, service rotating terms.  The charter board president was Dr. Thomas G. Jansen.

For the first time since the erection of the parish in 1947, Monsignor Allen took a vacation [in 1968].  He accompanied Bishop Fletcher to Room for his quinquennial visit to the Holy Father.  On this trip, anticipating eventual construction of a new and bigger church to meet the parish's growing needs, Monsignor commissioned a new and larger oil painting of Our Lady of Confidence.

Upon his return from Rome, Monsignor Allen oversaw organization of a Parish Council to conform to the mandate of Vatican II, calling for lay advice and assistance to the clergy in operating local parishes.  Several subcommittees were formed.  These were concerned with liturgy, education, community service, the parish plant and social activities. [Over the years, these committees have evolved.]

In 1969, the Arkansas State Department of Education granted Class A state accreditation to Holy Souls School, and plans were being finalized for construction of a new pot-Vatican II style church.  Advance arrangements overseen by a special building committee of laymen included a successful petition for the Little Rock Municipal Planning Commission to close one block of "i" Street between Harrison and Tyler Streets.  The removal of three residences, including the old parish rectory, from abutting land gave the new edifice a hilltop location, overlooking a tree-studded residential valley to the west.  The design of the $750,000 church emphasized the restored liturgy of Vatican II.

The late years of the decade of the 60s brought territorial circumscription to the parish.  Until then Holy souls parish had been bordered on the south by Our lady of Good Counsel parish, on the east by the Cathedral parish, on the north by the Arkansas River, but it had been open ended on the west.

Erection of Christ the King parish for far-western Little Rock on January 10, 1967 was a practical necessity.  Population growth was pushing the city's boundary ever farther west, increasing substantially the pastoral work of priests assigned to Holy souls parish. (by the end of the decade, more than half the population of Little Rock resided west of Mississippi Avenue, a north-south thoroughfare one-and-one-half miles west of Holy Souls Church.)  Monsignor Allen had called this developing situation to Bishop Fletcher's attention as early as 1960, but it was seven years before pastoral pressure necessitated erection of the new parish.