[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 11, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2542-E2543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CARDINAL JOHN P. FOLEY DAY IN PHILADELPHIA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2007

  Mr. FATTAH. Madam Speaker, December 13, 2007, is a special day in 
Philadelphia. The City Council has declared `Cardinal John P. Foley Day 
in the City of Philadelphia' to honor a great and humble priest of our 
city who has been elevated to Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
  Both in Philadelphia and on the world stage, Cardinal Foley has 
served ably as the communicator of both faith and social policy for the

[[Page E2543]]

Catholic Church as it performs vital work in maintaining the health and 
welfare safety net for many of our citizens in need, regardless of 
religion, race or nationality.
  Even as Cardinal Foley has served two Popes at the Vatican for the 
past 23 years, he always left his heart in Philadelphia. He has made 
frequent return visits to friends, family, fellow priests and all his 
admirers in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where he was born, raised 
and ordained.
  December 13 highlights Cardinal Foley's first visit home since the 
Consistory in Rome on November 24, 2007, at which he and 22 other 
priests were elevated to Cardinal. He will be honored in Philadelphia 
City Council, where he will open the weekly session with a prayer. Then 
he will celebrate the Mass of Thanksgiving at the Cathedral Basilica of 
Saints Peter and Paul along Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
  Cardinal Foley's career as a Catholic communicator extends back to 
his youth, as a teenager in Sharon Hill. As a student at St. Joseph's 
Preparatory School, he wrote and produced plays on the lives of saints 
that were broadcast on a radio station that specialized in Catholic 
programming. Also at St. Joseph's Prep he developed an abiding lifetime 
friendship with Richard A. Doran, an outstanding Philadelphian on whose 
counsel and friendship I often relied in the dawn of my career. 
Tragically, Dick Doran died less than a year before this week's 
celebration, but the ceremonies this week will be graced by his widow 
Mary Doran.
  As a student at St. Joseph's University the future Cardinal Foley was 
a TV regular on a Channel 3 college debate series, often jousting with 
Penn's Arlen Specter, now Pennsylvania's senior senator. And in typical 
Foley storytelling fashion he recalls that the show shared studio space 
with ``Bertie the Bunyip,'' a legendary local puppet show of the 1950s.
  The late Cardinal John Krol spotted this young priest as a devout man 
of great talent and potential. Cardinal Krol arranged for him to attend 
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, installed him as 
Editor of the Catholic Standard and Times for the Archdiocese of 
Philadelphia from 1970 to 1984, then recommended him to Pope John Paul 
II for a new post as President of the Pontifical Council for Social 
Communications at the Vatican.
  Then-Archbishop Foley undertook the task of explaining church 
teachings through the worldwide media. He designed and implemented the 
Vatican's modern communications policy. He also served as the voice of 
the Vatican on such occasions as the global telecast of Midnight Mass 
from St. Peter's--a role he intends to continue.
  Now, in addition to solemn duties as advisor to Pope Benedict XVI, 
Cardinal Foley has taken on the responsibility at the Vatican for 
overseeing the Catholic holy places in the Middle East as Pro Grand 
Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
  Through it all, this man of God has never lost his humility, his 
gentle wit and his broad smile as he has risen to this most elite level 
of the billion-member worldwide church to which he devotes his life. 
Cardinal Foley Day is a day of celebration for all of us.

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