[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11-S12]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO MONSIGNOR IGNATIUS McDERMOTT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is with sadness that I rise to pay 
tribute to the life of a great friend, a great man who passed away on 
December 31. His name was Monsignor Ignatius McDermott and he was known 
as Father Mac, from the city of Chicago. He was a model of compassion, 
commitment, and service.
  On December 31, when he left this Earth, he was 95 years old. He made 
his name in Chicago because of his dedication to some of the poorest 
people who lived in that city. When he was a young priest, he had many 
options. He worked in parishes and had different assignments, but he 
knew there was a special calling in his life, a calling that very few 
priests, very few people would even consider. Monsignor McDermott, 
Father Mac, dedicated his life to walking Chicago's meanest streets, 
skid row, and becoming the priest, the chaplain, of thousands of people 
on those streets addicted to drugs and alcohol.
  Ironically, he died on the 29th anniversary of the day that he 
cofounded Chicago's largest addiction treatment center, Haymarket 
Center.
  He was born in the ``Back of the Yards'' neighborhood. If you read 
Upton Sinclair's book ``The Jungle,'' you know what the stockyards 
meant to the city of Chicago. That is where the immigrant families 
headed. That is where they could find a job that required hard work and 
a strong back and barely make a living. That is where he grew up.
  He was known in his youth as just the kid brother of the famous 
alderman, Jim McDermott. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1936. He 
was assigned to what is now known in Chicago as Maryville Academy, a 
home for neglected and abandoned orphaned children. It was there that 
he saw for the first time in his ministry how alcoholism affected 
families.
  He disagreed with the common sentiment in Chicago and across the 
country that alcoholism was just a character flaw: If you had a little 
better character, you might overcome that problem. He understood it was 
a disease and it needed to be treated. So Father McDermott brought 
Alcoholics Anonymous, which in the late forties was really a creation 
for the middle class of America, to the people of skid row in Chicago, 
people whose alcoholism had left them in the worst possible plight.
  In 1963, he founded the Central States Institute of Addiction because 
he recognized the need for qualified treatment counselors and 
educators. It was there that Illinois's first program for offenders 
convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol was created.
  In the 1970s, he led the charge in our State to decriminalize public 
drunkenness. On New Year's Eve 1975, along with Dr. James West, who 
would go on to direct the Betty Ford Center in California, Father 
McDermott founded Haymarket Center.
  I have had the privilege in public life to meet some amazing people, 
and I count Monsignor McDermott--Father Mac--as one of those people.

[[Page S12]]

  When I first came to the Senate, the Irish-American clubs of Chicago 
came to me and suggested we should have a postage stamp that would 
acknowledge the contribution of Irish immigrants to America. I was 
surprised it had never happened. So the first phone call I made in the 
Senate was to my colleague, Senator Ted Kennedy. If there is anything 
dealing with Irish Americans, you better get Ted Kennedy on board. He 
thought it was a great idea. So we worked together, and we were 
successful.
  The Postal Commission decided to commission a commemorative stamp 
commemorating the immigration of the Irish to Chicago. Ted and I tried 
to decide which one of us would announce the stamp. By seniority, he 
was able to announce the first-day issue in Boston, the same day I 
would unveil the stamp in Chicago.
  I thought to myself: Who will I invite from this city of so many 
great Irish Americans to come and represent those of that ethnic origin 
at the unveiling of the stamp? I looked around at some of the obvious: 
Father John Smith of Maryville, the institution I mentioned earlier, 
who did so much to help so many young children; Sister Rosemary of 
Misericordia Center, just an amazing, wonderful, and warm, touching 
center for children who were born with mental affliction and mental 
illness. I thought of Father Jim Close, who runs Mercy Home for boys 
and girls in Chicago. I thought what a great contribution he made. I 
thought of my pastor from my parish, Father Jack Wall from old Saint 
Pat's, a downtown parish that serves so many people in that community. 
But I also thought of Father Mac.

  I brought them all together. They were up there with me on that stage 
when we unveiled the stamp. When I got up, I said: If you want to know 
the contribution of the Irish people to the city of Chicago, look at 
these five people and the dedication of their lives and what they have 
done to help so many people. Had the Irish been pushed away and shunned 
from coming to America, would someone else have stepped into their 
roles?
  I thought about that again when Father Mac passed away. He took an 
assignment most priests would not even consider: going to those mean 
streets, those poor areas of Chicago. That was his ministry. How many 
times would each one of us, as we are walking along with our family on 
the street, see someone who is obviously intoxicated or sick with 
addiction and maybe pick up our pace and walk a little faster? For 
Father Mac, that is exactly when he would slow down and stop to try to 
determine what he could do.
  He dedicated his life to these people. There were so many amazing 
stories that came from it, lives that were saved, people who were given 
a chance to succeed. When he opened the Haymarket Center--it is right 
behind Greek Town in Chicago, if you happen to know the city a little 
bit. It used to be a part of the city that mainly was warehouses. Now 
it is becoming pretty gentrified with a lot of lofts and condominiums, 
with a lot of people moving in, a lot of trendy restaurants, but when 
it was one of the poorest parts of Chicago, Father Mac established 
Haymarket Center because that is where he could find the people who 
needed his help.
  I have been there several times. He had a little chapel in Haymarket 
where he would hold mass on Sundays, and many people came to join him 
at that little service. As they walked around Haymarket Center, they 
understood that even though those were some of the poorest people in 
some of the worst places in our city, Father Mac always treated them as 
his brothers and sisters. He went out of his way to give them the 
dignity and attention they deserved.
  Those of us who were privileged to have known Father Mac will 
remember his wonderful ability to always see good in people and to 
convince those same people not to give up on themselves. He was a 
visionary, he was a leader, and he was a friend. But he was more. When 
I think back on my life, on those I have met who made a profound 
impression on me and who if they did not reach the level of sainthood 
were knocking at the door, Father Mac was one of those people.
  I extend my deepest condolences to all of those who join me in 
treasuring the fond memories of Monsignor Ignatius McDermott. We start 
the new year with a heavy heart but with a renewed commitment that each 
of us in some small way will try to continue the ministry of this 
wonderful man.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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