[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 16, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H4345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WELCOMING REV. STEPHEN W. PLANNING, S.J.

  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to welcome Father Stephen 
Planning and to thank him for delivering our opening prayer this 
morning.
  Father Planning is a member of the Society of Jesus and was ordained 
to the priesthood this past Saturday, June 12.
  He and his family are longtime residents of northern Virginia, where 
he began his Catholic education. Following his novitiate experience at 
Wernersville, Pennsylvania, Father Planning taught high school in 
Nigeria and ministered in a nearby leprosy village. Upon returning to 
the United States, he received a master's degree in philosophy from 
Fordham University and spiritually advised indigent AIDS patients at a 
nearby Bronx hospital.
  Father Planning also has ministered and taught English in Santiago, 
Chile, studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, 
California, where he completed a master's of divinity degree, and 
served in a local parish, and spent this year in Chicago, Illinois, 
where he finished a master's degree in education at Loyola University 
and worked at Christo Rey Jesuit High School, where he now will return 
to serve as assistant principal.
  Our colleagues would be interested to know that this inner city high 
school has a unique corporate intern program which requires students to 
attend classes 4 days a week and hold down an 8-hour-per-week job with 
a corporate sponsor to help pay their tuition. Christo Rey's pioneering 
concept this past year saw 89 percent of its seniors graduate, 73 
percent enroll in college.
  Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues join me in congratulating Father 
Planning on his ordination and wish him continued success wherever he 
is led in the future to serve the cause of Jesus Christ.

                          ____________________