[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 60 (Wednesday, April 16, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H2425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING THE SISTERS OF MERCY ON THEIR 150TH ANNIVERSARY
(Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today asking you to join me in
recognizing the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of Mercy of Buffalo,
New York.
The Sisters of Mercy were founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831 by
Catherine McAuley. The first order was formed in the United States in
1843 in the city of Pittsburgh.
The Sisters of Mercy came to Buffalo, New York in 1858. And since
that time, from a small teaching order of Mercy nuns, they established
a Catholic school system in Buffalo, New York, hospitals where they
ministered to our sick, schools where they taught our children and
provided an extraordinary example of compassion and love throughout the
western New York community.
The Sisters of Mercy are also doing extraordinary humanitarian work
throughout the entire world in very volatile places like Africa and the
Middle East. And the Sisters of Mercy were represented here today in
our Nation's Capital at the first papal visit of Pope Benedict to the
United States.
Sister Margaret Ann Coughlin, a long-time friend and 50-year member
of the Sisters of Mercy, was here today to join in the celebration that
this Nation held in welcoming the new Pope to the United States.
The Sisters of Mercy have cared, not only in the United States, but
throughout the world, for the despised and the dispossessed. And those
who have been forsaken have never been forsaken by the Sisters of
Mercy.
A lot of the institutions that they started, schools, hospitals, are
now run by lay people and also administered by lay people, but what
remains, Mr. Speaker, is the constant love and compassion, that
principle that was established first and foremost and continues today
by the Sisters of Mercy.
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