[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5545-S5546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            SISTER CAROL McGOVERN--LET'S CELEBRATE HER LIFE

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, I ask that the Senate join in celebrating 
the life of Sister Carol McGovern, RSM. Often we find that life gains 
meaning through our service to others, and our greatest personal 
ambition seems empty and illusory compared to such service.
  Sister Carol McGovern, who died Wednesday of breast cancer, was 
executive director of Amos House, a soup kitchen and social service 
center in the poorest neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island's 
capital city. To this position she brought tremendous energy and great 
vision. Her vision arose from spiritual commitment and was informed by 
an extraordinarily active life.
  Sister Carol was involved: She served on many boards of directors, 
working with Sunrise House, the Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center, the 
Campaign To Eliminate Childhood Poverty, and the Rhode Island Right to 
Housing Now.
  When one first meets a person such as Sister Carol, an initial 
elation often gives way to the question: Where will the energy come 
from to sustain such commitment?
  The problems of humanity, even at a local level, seem so vast, 
complex, and intractable that they would quickly consume one entirely. 
Yet, year after year, on issue after issue, Sister Carol was there.
  Her energy never diminished, but grew deeper. Service that one would 
have thought to be all consuming, revealed itself to be vitalizing. In 
the end, she was a force. The name Sister Carol McGovern resounds with 
meaning unattainable by pursuit of individual interest.
  In 1959, she joined the Sisters of Mercy, in 1967 she took her final 
vows. She earned her bachelor's degree from Salve Regina College and 
her master's degree from St. Michael's College.
  She was given awards for her work, the John Kiffney Award from the 
Providence Newspaper Guild, an honorary doctorate from Rhode Island 
College, to name two. For anyone this would be a record of outstanding 
accomplishment and well deserved recognition, but this record never 
defined her.
  Her essence was her commitment to service, her real presence was to 
be found among those most in need. Her life was claimed by an illness 
that afflicts many women, she faced it bravely, and again she set a 
fine example.
  My office and I were deeply fortunate to be able to work with her 
over the years. Many times she enlightened us and gave us courage to 
address difficult issues squarely.
  She didn't ask for answers, only effort. We shall miss her greatly. I 
am truly saddened by her passing. Yet it is her life of service that I 
ask this body to celebrate and commemorate.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article from the 
Providence Journal of April 6, 1995, entitled ``Sister Carol McGovern, 
53, Champion of the Poor, Dies,'' be inserted into the Congressional 
Record as if read.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

         Sister Carol McGovern, 53, Champion of the Poor, Dies

            (By S. Robert Chiappinelli and Thomas J. Morgan)

       Pawtucket.--Sister Carol McGovern, RSM, executive director 
     of Amos House in Providence and one of Rhode Island's best 
     known advocates for the poor, died yesterday at her home on 
     Blodgett Avenue.
       Sister Carol, 53, has been ill with breast cancer for the 
     past year and a half. The disease had seemed to be in 
     remission, but then spread to her liver.
       Experimental treatment allowed her to resume an active 
     outdoor life and to continue her 12-hour work days until her 
     health failed less than a month ago.
       Henry Shelton, another longtime activist, said, ``Carol 
     lived her life to the fullest with a smile that signaled joy 
     and love, and faced death with more courage than anyone I 
     ever knew.
       ``My prayer is that her life and death will inspire in 
     Rhode Island's religious and political leaders a commitment 
     similar to hers to support the effort of Rhode Island's 
     powerless to help each other out of poverty.''
       ``What does one say about so remarkable a woman?'' said 
     Richard J. Walton, former president of the board of Amos 
     House, a soup kitchen and social service center in South 
     Providence.
       ``She was a woman who cared very deeply and worked with 
     passion, I guess you could say, and with humor. And I've 
     never seen anyone bear up under what she's borne up under 
     these last few months. She seemed to be more concerned about 
     making people feel okay about her illness. She kept such a 
     brave front that unless you knew she was sick, you couldn't 
     know.''
       Born in Providence, she was a daughter of Eleanor V. 
     (Peterson) of Cranston and the late James V. McGovern.
       Sister Carol arrived at Amos House along a curious path.
       She spent her early years teaching but in the 1970s she 
     joined four other Sisters of Mercy knocking on doors in 
     Woonsocket and meeting struggling residents.
       The nuns taught residents, particularly women alone with 
     young children, about available resources, and in a few years 
     turned their jobs over to neighborhood people they had 
     trained.
       So by 1983, Sister Carol was out of a job and decided to 
     take some time to refocus. She got a job as manager of the 
     Yarney, one of the stores in the then-new Davol Square 
     shopping center in Providence.
       Using skills from her early years, she taught customers how 
     to knit, and often chatted with Sister Eileen Murphy the Amos 
     House founder who regularly strolled through Davol Square.
       After Sister Eileen died unexpectedly in December 1983, 
     Sister Carol decided to apply as part of a team at Amos 
     House. Eventually she became co-director with Jim Tull. (Tull 
     stepped down earlier this year.)
       Despite her illness, Sister Carol continued her Amos House 
     work and was showered with love and concern by those who used 
     its services.
       ``I have a real passion for the people who come here,'' she 
     said. ``They are my family, they truly are my family.''
       Despite setbacks inherent in fighting for the needy, Sister 
     Carol said, she drew sustenance from the example of her 
     widowed 
      [[Page S5546]] mother and the words of anthropologist 
     Margaret Mead, who said that small groups of truly committed 
     people are the only things that have ever changed the world.
       She entered the Sisters of Mercy in September 1959 and took 
     her final vows in August 1967.
       She received a bachelor's degree from Salva Regina College 
     in 1964, and a master's in 1974 from St. Michael's College in 
     Vermont.
       Sister Carol was a founder of the Rhode Island Coalition 
     for the Homeless, and was president of its board. She was a 
     member of the board of directors of Sunrise House, a member 
     of the board and a counselor-advocate of the Rhode Island 
     Rape Crisis Center, a member of the Campaign to Eliminate 
     Childhood Poverty and the Rhode Island Right to Housing NOW.
       She was a lobbyist for the Sisters of Mercy for the last 
     four years, dealing with peace, justice and women's issues.
       In February Sister Carol and Tull received the John Kiffney 
     Award of the Providence Newspaper Guild.
       She also received the Bronze Key Award fro Substance Abuse. 
     She was to receive an honorary doctorate in May from Rhode 
     Island College.
       Surviving besides her mother are two brothers, Robert F. 
     McGovern of Cranston and James V. McGovern of Oxford, Mass., 
     and a sister, Marcia E. O'Connor of Providence.
       A concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 
     Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Michael Church, Oxford, Street, 
     Providence. Burial will be in Resurrection Cemetery, 
     Cumberland.
     

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