[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 124 (Friday, October 6, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   A TRIBUTE TO ST. KATHERINE DREXEL

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 6, 2000

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, seventy years ago, Katherine Drexel visited 
the pristine coastline of Wading River, Long Island at the request of 
the Reverend Bernard Quinn, who wanted to help her in creating an 
orphanage for homeless African American children from New York City. So 
moved by the beauty of the vista and the dire need for the orphanage, 
Mother Katherine Drexel sent four nuns from the order she created, the 
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, to 
teach at the Little Flower Institute.
  Little Flower was established in 1930 after much opposition from the 
local residents. It was burnt down twice under mysterious 
circumstances. Despite the obstacles, Little Flower has grown to one of 
the largest foster care agencies in New York, providing services to 
approximately 2,500 children. Death, illness, poverty and substance 
abuse have claimed the innocence of so many of Little Flower's 
children. However, all of the people that have been involved in the 
institute, have given children a ray of hope and a new beginning for 
over 70 years.
  Little Flower is just one of nearly 300 missions and schools, 
Katherine Drexel built. Rejecting the life of a socialite and donating 
her riches to ``the cause of uplifting Indians and Colored People,'' 
she dedicated herself to a life of poverty and helping those who needed 
her the most. She was a woman who was ahead of her time. She afforded 
people of downtrodden races the respect and love that most others could 
not. Mother Drexel looks past the color of a person's skin and looks to 
the inside and the true humanity of each and every person she met.
  This week, after the Catholic Church ascribed two miraculous cures of 
deafness, Mother Katherine Drexel became St. Katherine. She was 
cannonized by Pope John Paul II and joins only three other American 
saints.
  St. Katherine has touched the lives of so many. So many children at 
Little Flower and other schools throughout the country. So many who had 
been abandoned by society and left to fend for themselves. So many who 
needed a person to see the goodness in all. So many who needed and were 
helped by St. Katherine Drexel.

                          ____________________