St Columbkille High School - Columb Yearbook (Brighton, MA)

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destiny are guaranteed by our government, while religion motivates the duties of citizens to their civil rulers. Whatever of guidance and authority the country enjoys is only because Ale mighty God has deigned to share His prerogative as the Source of all power with His creatures. A countryls basic claim to the devotion and service of its people rests upon the right to rule which it has in common to a degree with God and parents. Because the power of government is God given, Pope Leo XIII has rightly delined the respect which citizens must have for this authority when he wrote in his en- eyelieal, iiSapientiae Christianae,bettHallowed, therefore, in the minds of Christians is the very idea of public authority in which they recognize some likeness and symbol as it were, of the Divine Majesty. The supernatural love for the Church and the natural love for the fatherland proceed from the same eternal principle, since God is their Author and originating cause? Such being the teaching of the Church it becomes axiomatic that a good Catholic must be a good Citizen for he recognizes in the laws. of his government the voice of his God. Law, order and obedience must circumvent his every action as a Catholic. Love, respect and loyalty must ever guide him on the path of civic duty. As we cannot separate morality from God, neither can we divorce Citizenship from religion. The two are bound together, the one strengthening and supporting the other, for the mystic Chords which bind the human heart to faith and fatherland lie Close together: what strikes on one re- verberates along the other. Without religion Citizenship will lack duty, without citizenship democracy will lack stability. A democracy will remain democratic only as long as its Citizens are willing to promote its welfare by honesty, obedience, and sacriHee. With these convictions deeply imbedded in his heart, the religious Citizen will serve his country in peace or war for conscience sake. He will, if need be, not only relinquish his comforts and conveniences for its defence, but will offer the last full measure of devotion, becoming the willing victim of his own sacrifice. A quarter of a century ago our fathers fought at the Somme, the Argonne, and Chateau Thierry to make the world safe for democracy. These same battlefields, and others too, are known today to our brothers as they play their roles in the second act of Freedonfs drama. God grant that father and son will not have died in vain to save a democracy that well can perish from the apathy of its citizens to God and Country, Privilege and pillage, bribery and ehieanery, bigotry and intolerance, are slowly sowing subtle seeds of decay in the hallowed foundation of our democratic government. Public offices are no longer public trusts; graft and dishonesty are the ruling house of politics; and love of neighbor is submersed in the quieksands of self. Why, we ask, this seepage in the walls? Why may we point this iinger of accusation? WHY? Because the bonds of religion and citizenship have been rent asunder, because religion has been divorced from polities and because the people have tried to lock God in His churches and exclude Him from their political and civic life. If we are to bequeath to posterity the democracy that our- forefathers willed to us, it must be one that will be leavened with a citizenship based on morality, and a morality based on God. Be he Jew, Protestant, or Catholic, be he capitalist or laborer, be he voter 0r legislator, he will serve his country and preserve his govern- ment only if his every vote, duty, and action, be guided by the divine principles of Morality. It is our solemn duty as Catholic citizens, therefore, to be conscious of our duty to America and preserve its freedom by preserving its faith in God. With the same heartls love with which we embrace the Cross, we salute our country,s flag. We love the red that stands for the sacrifice of blood shed for the preservation of our nation. We love the white, signifying the purity of its ideals and the unspottecl rightness of its cause. We love the blue, proclaiming the loyalty of its citizens to authority and the devotion of its government to the common good. And because that Hag has been raised aloft by those who proclaimed that all rights come from God, we are confident that under God it will ever wave over a united nation and a strong people. With a prayerful hope that Godis moral law will be kept entwined with national ideals, we shall march shoulder to shoulder, ever onward and upward in the long procession of life, led by the Cross of Christ, the emblem of our faith7 and the stars and stripes, the banner of our land, until that day of final victory when the blood of Christ will be the salvation of our souls, as the blood of Americans has been the salvation of our land. MARY LITTLEFIELD

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Religion and Citizenship Winner of First Prize in Diocesan Oratorical Contest held at Emmanuel College, March 25, 1945 Fortunately for the future of our nation, our United States has had a past which is more than a prologue, a history which is more than an epic of glory, for entwined in its life has been a faith in God, which is our Salutary hope for these our troubled times. From its illustrious past gleam names which are still beacons on hills, Hashing to guide an anxious people away from the quagmires of doubt into the rock-ribbed areas of safety. Inspired by the Cross, valiant explorers and missionaries have ever dared to extend the frontiers of the Kingdom of Christ across the wide expanses of this land of Mary Immaculateh To the everlasting glory of our Founding Fathers their religious faith played alprominent part in their lives. The religious heritage of America has been chiseled on the cornerstone of our nation. If this cornerstone be tampered with, the whole edifice will collapse, for without religionls honor to God there can be no basis for the honor citizens give to the land of their birth. When our country began, our Founding Fathers were most anxious to find some basis for human rights, some foundation for human liberties, some guarantee of human personality which would be above the encroachment of tyranny and abuse. They sought these foundations in something so sacred and s0 inalienable that no state, no parliament, no dictator, no human power could ever take them awake and so they rooted them in God, Hence our Declaration of Independence reads, llW'e hold these truths to be self evident . . . all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and to guarantee these rights governments are instituted among men?, In this passage we find our philosophy of government. we are children of God, created by Him and endowed with certain natural rights, which are given to us as so many means of returning to Him. We are brought face to face with two basic co-related truths, our own human dignity as citizens of America, and our divine destiny as heirs of heaven. The rights of citizens to attain this

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Skilled Speakers The Girls, Debating Team of St. Columbkilleis High School spent many a diligent hour in preparation for the opening of the debating season for 1944-1945. The Catholic League program provided for eight interseholastie debates on the popular subject: Resolved: That the United States should cooperate in establishing and maintaining an international Police Force upon the defeat of the Axis. After many verbal battles on the issue, St. Columbkilleis girls became the victors in their division of the League. After successfully surviving the semi- final contests, they participated in the Eleventh Annual Girls, Diocesan Prize Debate against Mission High School of Roxbury, held at Mount St. Joseph Academy, Brigh- ton, on January 14, 1945, under the patronage of His Excellency, Most Reverend Richard J. Cushing, D.D. In this final debate St. Columbkilleis upheld the negative side with Barbara Shea, Juliet OiLeary and Mary Littlefield as speakers: and Mary Driscoll as alter- nate. They emerged triumphant over Mission before a capacity audienee WhOSC emotions and feelings were as intense as thOSe before a critical battle of a well planned campaign. St. Columbkille debaters are to be congratulated on bringing this added honor to their school, which is due in no small measure to the able direction of Father Frawley, and to their strenuous hours of work. DEBATING TEAM-SeatedeLeft to RighteMury Littlefield, Barbara Shea Standing-Juliet O'Leary, Ann Donovan, Mary Driscoll, Mary Gafrney, Joan Duggan, Alice Ryan