Mercy High School - Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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No longer a Mercy student, now a Mercy alumna. It is a remembered moment when a Senior crosses the Barrett hall stage during Awards Assembly, day before graduation, to receive from Mother General her inscribed membership in the Alumnae Association. unchanged Mercy in pires Sisters, San Francisco has changed from the gold-frenzied town of the 1850s to the interna- tionally known City of the 195053 but all her colorful history is in the SPIRIT of San Fran- cisco! Mercy education, too, has changed - from the simple religious instruction classes of the 1850s to the highly professional schools of the 1950sg but all its years of rich tradi- tion are in the SPIRIT of Mercy. San Francisco's modern' Mercy schools, housed in solidly beautiful buildings and D C equipped with the latest instructional facilities, have kept pace with the progress of the City and reflect the faith of her people and their sense of values.'New courses in the Mercy curriculum answer the revolutionary challenges of the 20th Century. In the activities of modern Mercy students there have been changes in social customs and recreational inter- ests, changes in fashions and fads . . . But there is something that our shining new Mercy' High School has in common withOur Lady of Mercy Academy on Rincon Hill, with old St. Brendan's, and with St. Mission: thari intangible but very real thing that we call the MERCY SPIRIT the truth and beauty of the and have it, by the tender ways. To that unchanged their co-workers in the ever the City of San Francisco, we

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Students of these early Mercy schools had their speech contests, sci- ence fairs, foreign-language competi- tions, and Awards Assemblies just as we have, today. In the Gay Nineties, exhibits of Mercy school work were displayed at the World's Fair. A let- ter sent in 1892 from the Superintend- ent of Schools to the San Francisco foundress tells a story familiar to all Mercy-ites of cooperation between teachers and students to produce an excellent work: His Grace the Archbishop asked me to write and thank you, your Sisters, and scholars for your and their assistance in making the preliminary ex- hibits such a success. The beauty of the work was due to the zeal of your teachers and scholars . . . CSS Mother M. Cyril, Mother General, is a frequent Mercy visitor. Here she offers a few words to faculty and students at an Awards Assem- bly: just as did her predecessor of a century ago, Mother M. Baptist Russell. of G y ineties F 56 Mercy's Pioneer Principal, Sister M. Grace, during the school's infant years, 1952-1958, guided the first strong thrusts of academic and spiritual growth of the new Mercy family. She founded Mercy Moth- ers' Guild and helped form the Alumnae Asso- ciation. A chronicler of this period tells how Mother Baptist Russell presided at 19th Century Awards Assemblies just as Mother Mary Cyril, our present Superior General, presides over ours each june: All through her busy career in California, Mother Baptist's love and interest in the teaching apostolate burned as a steady bright flame of zeal . . . It was a rare and disappointing Honors Assembly that was not graced by her smiling and encouraging PICSCHCC . . . With the growth of the City more Catholic schools opened, and Mercy's San Fran- cisco schools gradually expanded to include St. Brendan's, St. Peter's, Holy Name's, St. Gabriel's, and St. Stephen's. Sixty-five years after the first Mercy High School was de- stroyed by fire, our Mercy High School was built: The same SPIRIT OF MERCY that flourished on the historic hill-top of San Francisco's early years, responded - nearly a century later - to the educational needs of her expanding population with construction of this beautiful school on the outskirts of the City, where pioneer Mercy Sisters and stu- dents knew only a vast expanse of rolling, shifting sand dunes! 7

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Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli visited San Francisco in 1936 to offer Holy Mass at the Cathedral and to pay tribute to g yesterdays and today's pioneers. Three years later he became Pope Pius XII. During his pontihcate he encouraged the establishment of new high schools and universities to meet the needs of the world's peoples. irit nts, co- orkers . . . ggvering the memory of our late Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, in whose reign we weref and under whose glorious leadership we were educated, we gratefully conclude our with the challenging words he spoke to San Franciscans when he visited the s City 1936 as Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli: I have come to pay tribute to the Reverend Bishops, the zealous priests, the Holy Religious and devoted faithful of all this region,'because I know that in you there dwells the dauntless the pioneers, the spirit of the missionaries, of the Far of good heart, be true to your faith and in your ardent