Religion is\nsomething that everyone is born with. In\nmost cases it is decided at your birth by your parents and usually an\nindividual has nothing to due with it. I was born into an Irish Roman Catholic\nFamily and was baptized Roman Catholic when I was about a week old. Being that\nyoung of course I had nothing to do with making that choice. I was baptized at\nSaint Anne\u2019s Roman Catholic Church, West\n Milton Street, Readville, Massachusetts a suburb of Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do not\nremember my young years but I am sure that I was considered to be a devout\nRoman Catholic by both the Hannigan and Donahue Families. After all they had\nmade that decision for me. I do remember at about the young age of four going\nto church with my father while my mother stayed home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My father and\nmother worked diligently with the Pastor and Sister Superior to enroll me in\nthe first grade at the age of five. This was my first encounter with someone\noutside of the family. Needless to say, the discipline that I was taught by the\nNuns has been with me all my life. Not to mention religion on the whole. Yes, I\nbelieve in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Holy Trinity and the terror of\nhell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the second\ngrade, I was taught the tradition of the First Holy Communion and accepting\nJesus as my Savior. Both my parents attended my First Holy Communion\nDedication. My family was proud as they should be on that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the third\ngrade, being a boy, I naturally had to become an Altar Boy because that was the\ntradition. I learned the litany of the Roman Catholic Mass not in English but\nin Latin. I learned when and how to answer the priest\u2019s questions, when to ring\nthe bells, when to genuflect, when to distribute the water and wine, and when\nto assist the priest in giving Holy Communion. During my teachings, I was also\ntold that if there was not a Red candle burning by the Altar in a Church then\nit was not a Roman Catholic Church. Funny isn\u2019t it, how the little things are\nremembered of our training?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the sixth\ngrade, my class was taught the tradition of the Sacrament of Confirmation. When\none is confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church they become a Soldier of Christ.\nThe tradition is for the Bishop anoints you in a Church service and you accept\nthe next level of Roman Catholic Church. At this level you choose a name to add\nto your baptismal name. I chose John\nDennis Joseph Hannigan and I was a Soldier of Christ. I had finished my church\neducation now. It was time for me to be a pious little man and walk with the\nLord and be active in my Church. And I was active in the church after all I was\nan Altar Boy and had become trained in Benediction, Funeral Mass, High Mass,\nand Marriage Ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My next few\nyears, I grew up being part of the Catholic Youth Organization [CYO]. Here I learned the value of being a young\ncatholic boy in the City of Boston.\nThe CYO gave young catholic children the opportunity to meet socially at\nplanned parties, and monthly dances. This helped the maturing process from a\nyoungster into puberty by getting together in a social environment with the\nNuns and Priest supervising. At about\nthis time my parents talked to me about religion. The only thing that I can\nremember to this day follows. Never get into a discussion about religion with\nanyone. All Protestants are lost and Black [no meaning to the Negro race then\nthe Black race now]. Never trust a Jew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I graduated\nfrom Grammar school in 1948 and now it became sure that I would step out of my\nRoman Catholic environment and socially interface with other children my age.\nNaturally, there had to be some Protestant and Jewish boys and girls that I\nwould be in Junior High School. In addition there may be other races and\nreligions, even atheist. In order to protect me from the bad and the ugly, my\nfather arranged for me to go to Boston\nCollege High\n School in the Northampton\n Street area of Boston. My parents reasoning, I needed a\nRoman Catholic education and I needed to go to Boston College\nwhen I graduated High School in 1952. The Boston College\n High School facility was\nJesuit Priests. They were constantly teaching Roman Catholic Religion in depth,\nas well as, college preparatory class. Most of my teachers were former\nmissionaries who returned to the Untied Stated and taught. The discipline was\nas strict as my grammar school nuns and stricter at times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a\nconfusing year of my life and I started to rebel against my parents. My\nfreshman year at Boston College High had good and bad things. I learned a lot\nabout the other boy\u2019s neighborhoods and their social lives. As a student, I\nfailed miserably. When I received my final report card in June 1949, I didn\u2019t\nhave a grade above a C, and most were D and F. My report card should have told\nmy parents that, I needed to transfer education to another school but their\nthoughts were to repeat my freshman year at Boston College\n High School and graduate\nin June 1953. Needless to say I was not\nhappy and my personnel rebellion increase against my parents. My father\nreenrolled me for my freshman year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything\nappeared to be normal at the Hannigan household. My father was involved with\nthe following Roman Catholic Organizations \u2013 The Holy Name Society, The Knights\nof Columbus, Bishop Cheverus 4th Degree Knight, The Alhambra. My mother never\nwent to church. Her reason was when I was about three weeks old, the Pastor of\nSt. Anne\u2019s visited my parents after my baptism at 17 Buckingham Street. During the conversation, as I was told, the\nPastor told my parents that they should be good Catholics and have more\nchildren. My mother almost died during my birth and the pastor would not accept\nthat as a reason for being a one child family. As you can see my father was a\nstrong catholic and my mother gave up her religion after she was married. This\nis the environment that I grew up in as it pertained to religion. The household was insecure and I had\nCatholism driven down my throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I finished my\nsophomore and started my junior year at Boston College High. My grades were not\ntoo swift. Midterm examinations grades in my junior year were really bad. The\nFather Rector called for a meeting with me and my parents. He told my parents\nthat I could no longer go to school at Boston College\n High School and that he\ndoubted seriously if any College would accept me based on my grades. I felt a\nvictory in that I was a Roman Catholic boy but I was getting away from the\nstrictness of teaching at a high school level. \nThrough my years at Boston\n College High\n School, I served as an altar boy at St. Anne\u2019s\nChurch in Readville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I never gave\nup my Catholism when I went to Hyde\n Park High School\nfor the rest of my junior year and senior year. In January 1952, I entered Hyde\nPark High and felt embarrassed due to the fact that my grammar school\nclassmates that I went to school with were graduating as seniors in June 1952.\nThey looked down on me being a junior and therefore a failure. My rebellion\ncontinued against my parents from January 1952 thru June 1953 I really didn\u2019t\ndo anything academically. I become a Jock and played as many sports and school\nclubs as I could. I was experiencing the social changes of my life with school\nfriends of all religions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was initiated into the Columbian Squire Circle 525 a junior order of the Knights of Columbus under the guidance of my father when I was 16. Here I learned the secret codes and ritual of being a Squire. Another tradition to teach a Roman Catholic Boy about secret religious organizations.. I served as Bursar for one year and was the Chief Squire in 1952. I left the Squires in 1953.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Religion is something that everyone is born with. In most cases it is decided at your birth by your parents and usually an individual has nothing to due with it. I was born into an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancestors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndhannigan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}