Cathedral High School - Crusader Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

Page 10 text:

' M+ideSi . . . Since the Central Committee must furnish leadership for the school soda¬ lity, spiritual guidance for the indivi¬ dual homerooms must come from the class officers and particularly the class prefects. It is their duty to conduct class sodality meetings and make a report at general sodality meetings. The bovs elected lor these positions were: Norm Meder, Sam Kocurek, Wayne Lanter, Wally Amann, Jake Lippert, Bill Miller, Boh Schrag, and Joe Schwaegel. Wally Drone, prefect; Norm Med¬ er, secretary; John Schmidt, Euchar¬ istic chairman; Bill Gaul, Marian chairman; Ben Rice, Catholic action chairman; Jim Gedda, mission chair¬ man; Gene Sutton, parish representa¬ tive. These were the bovs who com¬ prised the Central Committee. All of them showed their leadership bv their participation in other activities around school. They were the team which combined its efforts to give Cathedral s sodality another successful year. Father Sullivan, the retreat-master, has been a priest for only twelve years and has been preaching retreats for only eight years, and yet he is widely known, particularly in the midwest section of the country. He more than lived up to the high standards expected of Cathedral retreat-masters. His clev¬ erness, wisdom, and clear understand¬ ing of youth’s problems provided the students with plenty of food for thought during the retreat. 6

Page 9 text:

An active interest is taken in foreign missions by Cathedral students. Col¬ lections are regularly made in each class, and the money eventually helps the missions in foreign countries. The schcx)l as a whole collected over 350 dollars during the year with the junior classes showing unusual leadership in this respect. Similar collections were also made during February and March for the Bishops Relief Fund. Cathedralites also participated in church activities during the year out of devotion to God and His Blessed Mother. Going to church during the noon hour to pray the rosary was the pet project of the juniors. For the three days preceding Lent, Cathe¬ dral students attended church every afternoon while 40 hours’ devotion was held. And during Lent Cathedral boys were present for the Stations every Friday afternoon. The parish representative, who re¬ ceives little publicity around school, nevertheless deserves credit for the important little job he performs. I le is the one who must take all the report cards of the students in his parish and show them to his pastor, and then bring them back to school and distribute them to the students. The respective PR’s this year were: Fred Rensing, S t. Teresa’s; A1 Bauer, St. Luke’s; Bob Sax, Cathedral; Dick Arnold, St. Mary’s; Bill Thomas, St. Henry’s; and Pat Yoxall, Blessed Sacrament. 5

Page 11 text:

. . . tku fL io.tectia t Coinciding with the novena preceding the feast of the Immaculate Conception was Cathedral’s annual retreat. Certainly, the retreat this year came at a very opportune time, coming during a period when the fighting in Korea was reaching a peak. 1 his was one of the principal reasons the novena in honor of Mary was being held in the Cathedral. The general situation provided a perfect atmosphere lor the students to en¬ gage themselves with serious thoughts and deep meditation about God in their lives. The retreat was held on December tilth, sixth, and seventh, just prior to the feast of the Immaculte Conception. Realizing that the success of a retreat depends heavily on the retreat master, an able priest was sought and found in Rev. A. J. Sullivan, O.M.I. His sharp wit and pointed discussions ol the individual topics were no small factors in contributing to the student s whole-hearted acceptance ot him. Each of the conferences left the student with something to think about. Many ideas were mentioned during the lectures, hut briefly, the important topics were these: the power that prayer has with our Blessed Mother and with God; and the extreme importance ol keeping a tight bond among families everywhere. 1 he materialistic ideas of the world today have served to break up many homes. Father Sullivan stressed the fact that nations are on the brink ol disaster because of the deterioration of family lile. The climax to the activities came on the last day, when the freshmen were entered into the sodality ol the Blessed Mother. Shown below ore Freshmen and their Mothers praying at moss before receiving the Holy Eucharist at St. Peters Cathedral.