The Cathedral Parish of St. Raymond Nonnatus 1917-1992
Written by Robert R. Morris

Part 2: The Grim Days of 1917
The people of Joliet and the parishoners of St. Raymond Parish did not live in a happy world in 1917. For the prior three years, a horrifying stalemate of blood and devastation held Europe in a death watch, as the once-great world pwers fought each other in a battle that cost them the youth of an entire generation. Pride gove evil was at stake, and the result was a horrifying, mechanized, technological deaith with no winners; only numbing losses. In little painful steps, the people of the United States were being drawn into Europe's war, despite President Woodrow Wilson's repeated attempts to keep us out of the chasm.

But in early 1917, German submarines repeatedly sank U.S. ships and passenger liners, igniting a nationwide fire-storm of indignation. By April, the U.S. had declared war against Germany, and during those very same November days when groundbreaking for the first St. Raymon Parish Church was celebrated, the first fighting involving U.S. troops took place along the Rhine-Marne canal in France.

During the same year, the people of the nation were singing "Over There," written by George M. Cohan. They were watching Charlie Chaplin become a millionaire as a silent film comedian and actor. The people of Chicago were content to be known as residents of the "Jazz center of the world."

In 1917, "Buffalo Bill" Cody died, marking the end of the Wild West and the frontier. But also in 1917, John F. Kennedy was born, who would one day pass the torch of leadership to a new generation of Americans.

These were the events that filled the newspapers of Chicago and Joliet during the days when Father Scanlan gathered his first flock to being a parish. It was a flock representative of the motto of the nation, "E Pluribus Unum," "From many, one."

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