[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 43 (Thursday, March 13, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S2120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    TRIBUTE TO THE MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH CONFERENCE AND RETREAT CENTER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to honor an organization 
that has contributed greatly to the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its 
citizens. The Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center 
celebrates its 25th year of service this year. The center has been a 
long time contributor to the State and the community in western 
Kentucky surrounding Maple Mount.
  In 1983, after many years as a boarding school, the Ursuline Sisters 
of Mount Saint Joseph made a difficult, yet promising decision to close 
its educational facilities. That led to the opportunity to develop the 
center into a modern facility. After much thought and prayer, the 
sisters that so dedicatedly ran the boarding school worked to transform 
it and its surroundings into a retreat center offering programs and 
meeting spaces for businesses and organizations.
  Since the renovation 25 years ago, the Mount Saint Joseph Conference 
and Retreat Center has focused on spirituality, the arts, and 
environmental education. Each year, 500 students visit the center to 
tour the surrounding farm and learn good stewardship of the Earth. 
Groups from churches and businesses frequent the center, which contains 
living quarters and a cafeteria.
  Not only does the center add to the mental and spiritual well-being 
of the people of western Kentucky, it works to preserve the environment 
as well. Through the dedicated leadership of Sister Amelia Stenger, 
director of the center, the Ursuline nuns have made it their mission to 
educate the community about the environment. In so doing, they have 
built one eco-friendly home out of straw and now plan to rebuild a home 
using several energy-saving measures.
  They plan to build a ``near-zero'' home that uses no outside sources 
of energy in western Kentucky. Sister Stenger pioneers these efforts 
after a visit to Austria, where she toured various conservation efforts 
there. This house will be called the Casa del Sole Environmental 
Education Center. The name is Italian for ``house of the sun,'' and for 
the Ursulines it also refers to Jesus Christ.
  The service and selflessness of Sister Stenger, three previous 
directors, and the center's staff has contributing much to those who 
visit the center every year and to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I ask 
my colleagues to join me in honoring the Mount Saint Joseph Conference 
and Retreat Center for 25 years of service in the community.

                          ____________________