St Mary Preparatory High School - Eagle Yearbook (Orchard Lake, MI)

Page 21 text:

the services of those intrepid champions of human freedom-Pulaski and Kosciuszko-whose very names are watchwords of liberty and whose deeds are part of the imperishable record of American inde- pendence .... They and the millions of other men and women of Polish blood, who have united their destinies with those of Ameri- ca-whether in the days of Colonial settlement, in the war to attain independence, in the hard struggle out of which emerged our na- tional unity, in the great iourneyings across the Western Plains to the slopes of the Pacific, on farms or in town and city-through all of our history they have made their full contribution to the up- building of our institutions and to the fulfillment of our national life. Franklin D. Roosevelt Address at Arlington National Cemetery October ll, 1937 ln our own American community we have sought to submerge all of the old hatreds, all the old fears, of the old world. We are Anglo-Saxon and Latin, we are Irish and Teuton and Jewish and Scandinavian and Slav-we are Americans. We belong to many races and colors and creeds-we are American! Franklin D. Roosevelt Address delivered in Boston, Mass. October 30, l940 America is a land of but one people, gathered from many countries. Some came for love of money and some for love of free- dom. Whatever the lure that brought us, each has his gift. lrish lad and Scot, Englishman and Dutch, Italian, Greek, French and Spaniard, Slav, Teuton, Norse, Negro-all have come with their gifts and have laid them onthe Altar of America. All brought their music-dirge and dance and wassail song, proud march and religious chant. All brought music and their instru- ments for the making of music, those many children of the harp and lute. All brought their poetry, winged tales of man's many pas- sions, folk songs and psalm, ballads of heroes and tunes of the sea, lilting scraps caught from the sky and field, or mighty dreams and dramas that tell of primal struggles of the profoundest meaning. All brought poetry. All brought art, fancies of the mind, woven in wood or wool, silk, stone or metal-rugs and baskets, gates of fine design and modeled gardens, houses and walls, pillars and roofs, windows, statues and painting-all brought their art and hand craft. Then too, each brought some homely thing, some touch of the familiar home field or forest, kitchen or dress-a favorite tree or fruit, an accustomed flower, a style in cookery or in costume- each brought some homelike, familiar thing. Franklin H. Lane America's Making . . . ln contrast with other immigrant groups, the American Pole has been able to retain to an unusual degree the Polish culture pattern within the American environment. This is due to the per- sistence with which the Polish immigrant clings to his nationalistic memories, the strength of the Roman Catholic Church, the unselfish willingness with which the American Pole supports his own institu- tions in America, the continued interest of the Polish Government, and the activities of the Kosciuszko Foundation. When this tendency is not carried to extremes, and when it aims to integrate the best elements of Polish culture into the culture pattern of America's cul- ture, then it helps to create the best type of American Pole. Joseph S. Roucek lntroduction to Racial and National Minorities The success of the Polish colonies, which grew up in Penn- sylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, at Chicago, New York, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Buffalo and elsewhere, in meeting these problems of readiustment is due to the parishes which were quickly organized in every Polish group and to the Polish American Associations .... H. H. Fisher America and the New Poland Traditionally, a Polish mother in bidding good- bye to her son, departing for America, would give him to take with himself a handkerchief filled with Polish soil. Would it have been better if we had not forced the child of the immigrant into the American public school, where the teacher was unsympathetic with un-American ideas and institutions while the pupils were intolerant of foreign food, dress, and ways? Some will reply: No, since the stage of assimiliation in which we now find ourselves is inevitable, it is better to 'hold it over with' in a single generation than to 'prolong the agony' through a series of genera- tions. Others will observe: 'There would have been far less anguish, moral wreckage, and social damage if the strain of Americanizing had been distributedamong children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren.' E. A. Ross Introduction to Americans in the Making The Catholic Church, according to a comparison of Benson, is like a great cathedral, which shelters under one extensive roof a great variety of small churches and chapels. lt is one and universal wherever men acknowledge membership in it, profess the same truths of faith, submit to the same hierarchy, and receive essentially the same sacraments. But the Church, though it has ends which transcend time and nationality, is also a living organism which lives and wages battle on earth, immersed in the vortex of history, built by individuals and nations. The Church does not limit itself to preaching the eternal truths, it created and creates its own culture. And that is why there is in the Church not only one common founda- tion and one fiight to the heavens, but, consistent with the original comparisons made to the Gothic cathedral, also many varied chapels, differing in as many varied shades as the spirit in keeping with faith, sacraments and hierarchy could create. There are, for example in the Church many schools of thought, many systems of spirituality and many styles not only of architecture but also of prayer. lt is no obiect of wonder then that the Catholic faith embraces and integrates these various national chapels. The nation has been for many ages that group which has most intensely infiuenced and cast the life of the people impressing its mark on thought, culture and custom. lt would be strange indeed if the nation did not also have its trace on religion in all its varie- gated aspects of relation to God and neighbor. It is an incontro- vertible fact that catholicism integrates in itself the variety of many nations, thoughts, prayers, and customs. l would further claim that the Catholic concept of culture has nothing in common with the all-levelling strickle. It is based on the ideal harmony of hundreds of cultures and their local differences. The Church is not the corpus politicum of Hobbes, composed of identical atoms, but an organic whole blending in one faith and under one spiritual authority an unlimited variety of nuances, the sum body and interrelation of which creates the oneness and great- ness of the whole. That is why, paranthetically speaking, wherever the Catholic Church exercises true rule over souls, it is then more than any other a true Church of that country in the truest and fullest meaning of the words. l. M. Bocherfski, O.P., Szkice Etyczne X It Q i 5 X g X ' 2: ei , ll' ll . v WMw:tfQ6 tl-Q I f l . jus fi 'H ' f . i l I' A R l A 1- f 1 mth-

Page 20 text:

he Church of Christ, the faithful depository of the teaching of Divine Wisdom, cannot and does not think of deprecating or disdaining the particular characteristics which each people, with iealous and intelligible pride, cherishes and retains as a precious heritage. Her aim is a supernatural union in all embracing love, deeply felt and practiced, and not the unity which is exclusively external and superficial and by that very fact weak. The Church hails with ioy and follows with her maternal blessing every method of guidance and care which aims at a wise and orderly evolution of particular forces and tendencies having their origin in the individual character ot each race, provided that they are not opposed to the duties incumbent on men from their unity of origin and common destiny. Pius XII Summi Pontificatus Man, as God wants him and the Church accepts him will never consider himself as firmly fixed in space and time if stripped of secure property and traditions. Herein the strong find the source of their ardent and fruitful vitality, and the weak, who are always the maiority, are protected against pusillanimity and apathy, against slipping from their dignity as men. The long experience of Church educators of people confirm it, accordingly she is careful in every way to ioin the religious life to national customs and is par- ticularly solicitous of those whom emigration or military service keeps far from their native land. Shipwreck of so many souls iusti- fies, alas, this maternal apprehension of the Church, and imposes the conclusion that the security of property and attachment to ancient traditions, which are indispensable to the healthy integrity of man, are also fundamental elements of human society. Men established in their inviolable integrity as images of God, men proud of their personal dignity and of their healthy free- dom, men, iustly jealous of their equality with their fellows in all that touches the most essential bases of man's dignity, men firmly attached to their land and traditions-men in a word, characterized by this four-fold element. Continuity in time had always appeared essential to life in society, and it seemed that this could not be conceived if men were isolated from the past, present, and future. Now this is precisely the disturbing phenomenon of which we are today witnesses. Too often of the past hardly anything is any longer known, or, at most, -55 33, is sufficient to guess at its hazy outlines in the accumulatipp f if ruins. The present is, for many, only the dis- ordered rush bf aif g nt, which carries men like drift on its head- long course to thgiiyqk night of a future in which they will lose themselves with tli?gr?am that bears them on. 5 fi Pius xu ifiaidaress to the College of Cardinals 5311215-iggbruary, 1946. People arefb instructed in the truths of faith and brought to appreciate the ioys of religion far more effectively by the annual celebratiorggff . Xe sacred mysteries than by even the weighti- est pronouncemejiijtfgjg the teaching Church. For such pronounce- ments reach onlptf iafew, and these generally the more learned, whereas all the fa are stirred and taught by the celebration of the feasts, prono?t5g ments speak only once, celebrations speak annually, and as continuously, pronouncements affect the mind primarily, ceigiigsltions have a salutary influence on the mind and heart, i.e. on-itlffx hole man. Since man is composed of body and soul, he has of being moved and stimulated by the ex- ternal solemnitiesibfg,fstivals. And such is the variety and beauty of the sacred rites, will drink more deeply of divine truths, will assimilate them s very fiesh and blood, and will make them a source of strengt?iQVa?,L progress in his spiritual life. Primas The ritual of Church services, the sacred symbols, the tradi- tional religious exercises, the church architecture and decorations, and the parish societies, all contribute a great deal to the conserva- tion of the traditional values of the ethnic group. The group's religion and its culture complement each other most completely . . . each working to reinforce and to preserve the other. S. J. Nuesse and T. J. Horte, eds. The Sociology ofthe Parish ln looking after the interests of the rural community, rural leaders will not underestimate the racial and cultural history of the people of the community, but will rather seek to preserve what is best in their traditions, so as to inspire love of family, loyalty to country, and devotion to Christ's Church. National Catholic Rural Life Conference Manifesto on Rural Life . . lt is a matter of appreciating what there may be of Old World culture in the soul of even the poorest and most ignorant im- migrant who has found his way to the United States. It is to be re- gretted that many immigrants conform so quickly and completely in all respects to American standards and become genuinely ashamed of their heritage. The man with two cultural homes is much less to be feared than the man who has none at all. Carl Wittke, Ph.D. We Who Built America The notion that every problem can be studied without the background of tradition must condemn men to a chronic childish- ness. No man, no generation is capable of rediscovering all the truths men need. The men of any generation, as Bernard of Chartres puts it, are like dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants. In develop- ing knowledge men must collaborate with their ancestors. Other- wise they must begin, not where their ancestors arrived, but where the ancestors began. Walter Lippman Address in Philadelphia, December 29, 1940 These heritages-these traditions and memories-are very real and tenacious, and cannot be brushed aside lightly without sad results. Americanization movements have been inclined to set the heritages aside and make abrupt breaks with the past. This has brought disorganization. 'To require that he fthe immigrantj forget the home of his birth is neither necessary nor desirable. Memory may enrich the present while it sanctifies the past. Destroy it, and we have by that much less a man.' W. C. Smith Americans in the Making Working counter to the welfare associations, and materially slowing up the process of assimilation are the American anti-alien groups .... Paradoxical as it may seem, the most valuable aid in the transition stage is the promotion of the exactly opposite program from that desired by ardent patriots, namely, the stimulation of in- terest and enthusiasm for Old World cultural traditions. This furnishes a social bond to hold the rudderless until the transition is com plete. There is no danger that it will become divisive because participation in the dominant American system is inescapable. Clara A. Hardin The Second Generation lt is a high privilege to bear witness to the debt which this country owes to men of Polish blood. Gratefully we acknowledge

Page 22 text:

The Mass attended by the first large Polish immi- grant group to the United States was offered under a spreading oak tree at Panna Maria, Texas. We can come to know a country only through its people, and its 2 people only through their customs. They are a reflection of their every-day life, of their every hope and prayer, they are the expres- Xxx r Q sion of every basic human sentiment: love, thanksgiving, ioy, fear, hi' 4 fidelity, concern, forgiveness, prayer and devotion. They are the I f X X key to a national character, to an understanding and appreciation N l 4 X K of all those things which make the man, which influence him, and if l X l X X l which urge him onto struggle for his life, freedom, and happiness. ' tl l X,-' l The Eagle of l954 is our effort to present to America a key to Q l X ' X ffl the understanding ofthe American of Polish descent. Numbering 'Q Y hx over six million and constituting one-sixth of the Catholic popula- f l . tion of this country, these people, our people, we ourselves, feel ' ' 44 X l X, that the best of what was given to us by our ancestors can be given Bch to America and woven into its culture to enrich and beautify it. We 5 tx , are able to look at the cultures of other immigrations and appreciate X l the best in them, by sketching this picture of the customs of the l Americans of Polish ancestry we hope we can make easier for the , others an appreciation of the culture to which we are heirs. l i' The theme of The Eagle of i954 is then the body of Catholic K Religious Customs of Poland. It is the story of Polish feasts and fasts, X , of stern hardship and great gaiety, of plowing and praying and if T' X' -,A playing, of festival and dance, of religious service and unceasing 5 A X : devotion, oflthe Polish country-side and the modern metropolis. lt is , 12' Nw, LJ, H an effort to picture that characteristic beauty of the traditional ways of the life of a people who believe that their home is a true Church in miniature. The Pole has been a Catholic for one thousand years. He has never known infidelity to his religion, he has never deviated into error and schism, he has never rebelled against the authority of Rome. His whole life therefore is wholly permeated by the influence of his religion. For him work, religion and recreation are as insep- arable as life itself. Every phase of his daily routine of sowing, tend- ing, and reaping the crops is associated in some way with deep re- ligious beliefs. All his festivals are tied up with feasts in the Church Calendar and the periods of accomplishment of his work. Most holi- days are related to and named in honor of a Saint. Practically every day bears the name of some Saint which is frequently used instead of the numerical calendar designation. Countless proverbs incorpo- rating Saint's names mark the calendar of the peasant as they fore- tell the weather, give advice on farming or remark about phe- nomena in nature. Poland is a land of poetry and legend. No European country celebrates so many religious holidays, almost all of which are related in some way to the cycle of work on the land, because ninety-five per cent of Poland is Catholic and three-fourths of its population is rural. The home and the Church are the Pole's only interests. For Church which is the social center of the village he will dress as for a party. The piety of the Pole is practical not theoretical. For him God is a loving Father who helps him in his work, blesses his crops, cures his ills, provides his bread, gives him his children, and takes away his loved ones in death. God is not an abstract concept about whom he can make predications but a Person whom he can love, worship, and adore. Christ, Mary, and the Saints are intimately familiar fig- ures who come to his aid with counsel, guidance, sympathy and consolation. The Pole is often poor in wordly wealth but rich in spirit. He is proud and fiery, he is a hard worker who loves to play, though re- strained, he is capable of being free, realistic, hard-headed, sensi- ble, he believes in self-discipline, he is independent and much concerned about honor, and he has the genius for fusing every event of his intensely lived life into a deeply felt religious and national tradition. ' The history of Poland is not a history of external changes in rule and boundaries, but of internal integrity and solidarity in cus- tom and tradition. Because of its location in central Europe, it found itself at once the bridge and highway between East and West. Be- cause it had no natural boundaries, itwas constantly open to attack. Through the hundreds of years of its history it has endlessly and stubbornly resisted conquest. Almost all of its wars took on the ves- tige of religious Crusades for they were always fought in defense of not only a national entity but a religious heritage. The Turk, Tartar, Swede, Nazi, Communist-all tried to sever it from ,its Catholic foundation. Always the Pole resisted, as he continues to do today. The Pole iealously guards his religion, his language, and his customs. Because of its history, anyone who tries to take any of these away from him ia mortal enemyllho he thinks is trying to destroy him. The soil of Poland is a soil saturated with the blood of martyrs for whom religion and nationality-Catholic and Polish- were synonymous. The Pole has but one interpretation of life: the religious one. ln his country you don't see religion, in Poland you feel it. The Pole loves that which appeals to the aesthetic sense of the soul, he loves singing and dancing, processions and pilgrimages, flowers, warmth, color, pageantry and ceremony. That is why the richness of the Catholic liturgy and worship so suit his ebulient and effusive temperament. ln an essay entitled The Church in Poland Fr. I. M. Bocheriski, the eminent Polish Dominican, has pointed out that the Church of his native land is one of the greatest pillars of contemporary Cath- olic Culture. Though in its history it has provided as compared with other catholic countries, few great thinkers, little missionary activity, no great expeditions, it has accomplished in reality more than all of these taken together, because it has realized the end for which the Church was established. By creating a unified people living with faith and charity it has occupied itself with the very reason of its existence and not with its means, for essentially the work ofthe Church is not earthly fame, not a highly developed theology, not the conquest of foreign lands, but the salvation of souls. The Cath- olic characteristic of Poland is nothing like the splendor and mysti- cism of the Spanish nor anything like the profundity of French theory, words can't describe it, for it is fashioned of the intangible qualities of piety and devotion which are rooted in the heart and which meet the eye at every devotional service, at every prayer, every procession, in every Polish home. Through one thousand years the Church of Poland was able to create its own admirable and dis- tinctive body of custom, art, and Catholic life which on all levels seek to eFfe,ct a deeper realization of the teachings of the Gospel. The Poles, as Catholics, have many customs in common with other Catholic countries. Our treatment of their religious customs will omit those which are the same the world over, it will be limited only to those customs which have a distinctive aspect or flavor in Poland, or which are not at all found anywhere else in the Catholic culture of the world. We have chosen to describe these customs as they existed and still exist in Poland because those which have been brought to America are an extension or an adaptation of these original ones and can be more fully understood and appreciated in the light of the source from which they flowed and in which they had their origin. The mosaic of American culture is now in the process of being wrought. The descendants of the Spaniard, the Frenchman, the Eng- lishman, the lrishman, the German, the Pole, the Italian, the Greek, the Czech, the Swede, the Hollander are all lending the small color- ful fragments of their customs which will appear in the picture of beauty which will result. Without these roots of other traditions the tree of American culture will never give forth the full fruit for which it has the potential.