Parish Life in the 1950s

New Activities
Although the new stone church rising from the corner of Lake Shore and East 200th was the most visible sign of change in the parish during the 1950s, it was by no means the only one. From the moment he arrived, Father McMonagle had been organizing new parish activities and revitalizing the ones that had been neglected during the thirties and forties: the Holy Name and St. Vincent de Paul Societies were revived; the Altar and Rosary Society was reorganized as the Court of Mary; and a Boy Scout troop, Married Couples' Club, drama club, and a youth group called the "Little Macs" were formed. Parish life in the fifties was a mad whirl of card parties, bake sales, roast beef dinners in the new church hall, dances, socials, and sightseeing trips.

In the early 1950s the Court of Mary sponsored the Parent-Educator Committee, which offered a program of Christian doctrine to the parish children who couldn't be accommodated in the school. The program, Teaching Religion in the Home, was a series of leaflets that covered a child's religious training in the home from infancy through age twelve.

The thirty women on the committee divided the parish into territories and used the parish census data to determine the number and ages of the children on each street. They ordered the needed leaflets and hand-delivered them door to door to over one thousand households. A new set of leaflets came out every three months and was distributed to parents at no charge. The volunteers were warmly welcomed as they made their rounds. Parents who had been uncertain about how to share their faith with their children found the lessons and suggestions in the leaflets to be very helpful and they were sincerely grateful for the program.

Expanding the School
The school was growing rapidly during the fifties. The parish of St. Robert Bellarmine had been founded in October of 1950 to serve the growing Catholic population in the area around Lake Shore Blvd and Babbitt Road. The new parish carved a small chunk from the northeast corner of Holy Cross's territory, giving the parish its present eastern boundary at East 217th Street, but despite the loss of some families to St. Robert, the school was still painfully overcrowded. In some classrooms, students were crammed two to a desk because of the lack of space. Even with an average of 50 students per teacher, there just wasn't enough room for everybody. During the 1954-55 school year the 7th and 8th grade boys met at St Joseph High School and used the retreat house lawn for recess. One afternoon, Archbishop Hoban saw them playing and asked what they were doing there. When the situation was explained to him, he gave the boys his blessing.

As the church neared completion, Father McMonagle embarked on the second phase of the building program - an addition to the school and construction of the Lake Shore Boulevard convent. In November and December of 1956, the parish undertook an intense, highly organized expansion campaign to fund the projects. Parishioners were asked to think carefully about what they could give through sacrifice, not convenience.

Any family or individual that made a pledge of at least $250 could designate a memorial in the church, convent, or school, and specify the inscription that would appear on the plaque. Teams of volunteer campaign workers were trained and sent out to visit every home in the parish to solicit contributions. "Sacrifice means success" and "pray, work, pledge" were the marching orders for their mission. Workers met weekly in the church hall to report their totals, which were published in a newsletter that listed the name of each contributor and the amount they had pledged.

Parishioners enthusiastically supported the campaign. Many pledges of $250 and $500 were received, and at least thirty-five families pledged more than $1000-a sizable donation at a time when the median family income was less than five thousand dollars a year. The campaign raised three hundred thousand dollars and at its close Fr McMonagle expressed his sincere appreciation for the parishioners and the campaign workers who had unselfishly given their time, money, and talent to make the campaign such a success. He also thanked the sisters and the school children for their prayers, and asked God's continued blessing for the parish.

The students got some extra elbow room when the six classrooms in the new south wing opened on October 15, 1958. During construction of the addition, the old part of the school was updated with a new roof, PA system, doors, lockers, and lighting in the basement rooms.

The Lake Shore Blvd convent was finished in early 1961 and, once the sisters were settled in, the old convent behind the church was remodeled for use as the rectory, bringing the eleven-year building program to a close.