[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO HIS EMINENCE ADAM CARDINAL MAIDA AND RABBI IRWIN GRONER

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                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 29, 1997

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, on May 5, 1997, the Ecumenical Institute for 
Jewish-Christian Studies will present its Dove Award to two outstanding 
religious and community leaders, His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida and 
Rabbi Irwin Groner.
  All of the citizens of Michigan are blessed to have in our active 
presence Cardinal Maida and Rabbi Groner. Through their individual 
endeavors and their friendship and collaborative efforts, they have 
enriched the entire State in many ways and deepened goodwill.
  They were instrumental in the establishment of the Religious Leaders 
Forum, which has stimulated dialog between the Christian, Jewish, and 
Muslim communities. Each has encouraged the spread of voluntarism to 
touch the lives of those beyond their own communities. They have been 
outspoken on society's need to attack bigotry and racism, wherever 
either might appear in our midst.
  Of course, for both Cardinal Maida and Rabbi Groner, the wellspring 
of their ecumenical work has been their deep spiritual commitment to 
their faith. Since his appointment by his Holiness John Paul II to be 
archbishop of Detroit on June 12, 1990, Cardinal Maida has maintained a 
focus, during a period of relative prosperity for citizens living 
within the diocese, on the less fortunate, whether children without 
health care or otherwise at risk, retired priests or the seriously ill.
  Rabbi Groner is the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, a 
religious home for my family over many decades. He has been preeminent 
in the conservative Jewish movement in our Nation, through his writings 
and sermons and his executive positions on various boards.
  In this day and age without global conflict but with persistent 
conflict and violence in daily life, it is rewarding for us all that 
these two distinguished people of peace are awarded for their work by 
the Ecumenical Institute. As one privileged to know them both, it is my 
honor to be able to ask today all of my colleagues to join in 
expressing congratulations and wishing to Cardinal Maida and Rabbi 
Groner many more years of service to their parishioners and to the 
public at large.

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