Cathedral High School - Crusader Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

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.

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 12 text:

mm First Row-. N. Meder, J. Gedda, J. Clemmons, W. Mertens, C. Nowotny, W. Drone, H. Haas. Second Row: R. Blaes, R. Gansmann, W. Thomas, R. Semmelroth, H. Himstedt, M. Lucash, S. Kocurek, C. Laquet. Third Row: J. Pope, R. Forness, D. Dollus, N. Allen, J. Hubbard, P. Yoxall, B. Rice, E. Sutton, R. Arnold, W. Siekmann, W. Gaul, R. Sax, L. Week, W. Knapp, R. Mulligan, W. Thebus. Fourth Row: R. Goldkamp, D. Bartling, R. Gundlach, A. Bauer, W. Pflugmacher, F. Rensing, T. Classen, and C. Wilson. • JUjftirUf, aun, voiced, in fx ' iai ' le 7 Ik Cathedral church choir, hv now well organized and firmly established, was continued and maintained during the 1950-1951 school year at C.H.S. It consisted solely of the vocally-in¬ clined members of this year’s senior class. Due to the fact that the singers had been promptly informed, they already had a month’s practice before the close of last year. Thus they need¬ ed little help or direction in their vocalizing, and therefore started chant¬ ing the Mass on the first dav of School. In December a choir was formed to sing at the Bishop’s low Masses on Christmas. This also consisted prin¬ cipals of members of the senior choir with a few extra members. Professor Bernard L. Miller