THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY OF 1925..........

At the conclusion of my February 11, blog colum on World Day of Prayer for the Sick, I wished Msgr. Edward J. Kavanagh, a Happy 85th Birthday. This morning news came of he passing of another world famous 85 year old, General and former Secretary of State, Alexander Haig. And here in East Sacramento last week Mercy General Hospital celebrated its 85th anniversary at 40th and 'J' Streets. As I have been introducing myself to Sacred Heart parishioners the past fifty days, I have said, the place across the street was where I and my brothers and sisters were born, where my mother died and my father was diagnosed and received treatment before his passing. These three 85 year markings, caused me to think further of the year 1925. It was in the middle of what is called the, "Roaring Twenties". President Calvin Coolidge was in the White House, having just been elected in his own right after succeeding to the Presidency upon the death of Warren Harding. Pope Pius XI was in his fourth of seventeen years as the Vicar of Christ in 1925. It is also unique in American television talk show history for being the year Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, and Merv Griffin,were born. "Silent Cal" presided over the, "normalcy" and boom of the mid-1920's. Pius XI, reigning between the two major World Wars, is remembered for his encyclial, Quadragesimo Anno, (40 Years) on the fortieth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII;s 1891 encyclial on social justice and the dignity of human labor. Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show, provided thousands of hours of entertainment enjoyment in their adult lives for more than thirty years. And all of the above is linked to the Year 1925. So, as Mercy General Hospital celebrates 85 Years in East Sacramento, commendations to the Sisters, Doctors, Nurses, and Staff, for their excellence in medical care and service of the Sacramento community and for remembering in the words of their order's foundress, Sister Catherine McAuley, "Our Name is Mercy; Our Spirit is Compassion"..........In the Peace and Healing of Jesus the Christ, Fr. Troy