[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 152 (Friday, November 30, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7309-S7310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMEMORATING THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE SISTERS OF
CHARITY OF NAZARETH
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to consideration of S. Res. 606, which was submitted earlier
today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 606) commemorating the 200th
anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Charity of
Nazareth, on December 1, 1812.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. LEVIN. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to,
the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the
table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any related
statements be printed in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 606) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 606
Whereas 19-year-old Catherine Spalding, born in Charles
County, Maryland, and Bishop John Baptist David, born in
France, responded to the need for education on the Kentucky
frontier by founding the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth
(referred to in this preamble as the ``Sisters''), on
December 1, 1812;
Whereas, after Ellen O'Connell, a gifted teacher from
Baltimore, Maryland, and daughter of a college professor,
joined the Sisters and prepared Catherine Spalding and
Harriet Gardiner for teaching, the 3 Sisters opened their
first school, in 1814, at St. Thomas Farm, in Nelson County,
Kentucky;
Whereas, after 2 years of teaching, the school serviced
both boarding and day students with a total enrollment of 37
girls, including 13 non-Catholic students;
Whereas, in 1822, the Sisters purchased property located 3
miles north of Bardstown, Kentucky and named that property
Nazareth;
Whereas, at Nazareth, the Sisters built log houses and a
new school, known as Nazareth Academy;
Whereas, in 1825, Henry Clay, Kentucky statesman and
orator, gave the first commencement address at Nazareth
Academy, where his daughter, granddaughter, and great-
granddaughter eventually received an education, along with
Sarah Knox Taylor, the daughter of President Zachary Taylor;
Whereas, during the Civil War, the Sisters nursed both
Union and Confederate soldiers;
Whereas Dr. J. O. Murray, a physician in the Union Army in
Louisville, Kentucky, wrote to Nazareth, ``I regret very much
to inform you of the death of Sister Catherine Malone on
January 31, 1862, at General Hospital No. 1 in this city.
She, as well as the other sisters at this hospital, have been
untiring and most efficient in nursing the sick soldiers. The
military authorities are under the greatest obligation to the
sisters of your order.'';
Whereas, in 1861, at the request of a commanding officer of
the Union Army, 22-year-old Sister Mary Lucy Dosh and the
other Sisters at St. Mary's Academy in Paducah, Kentucky
closed their school to nurse Union soldiers and Confederate
prisoners of war;
Whereas, while nursing, Sister Mary Lucy Dosh consoled
patients and often gave up her own food to provide
nourishment for the sick and wounded;
Whereas Sister Mary Lucy Dosh contracted typhoid fever and
died on December 29, 1861, resulting in doctors and soldiers
from Union and Confederate forces calling a truce to mourn
her death and officers from both sides accompanying her body
up the Ohio River on the U.S. Gunboat Peacock, for burial at
St. Vincent's Academy, in Union County, Kentucky;
Whereas, on January 17, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln
sent the following letter to Nazareth as a precaution against
any military intrusion: ``Let no depredation be committed
upon the property or possessions of the Sisters of Charity at
Nazareth Academy, near Bardstown, Kentucky.'';
Whereas, in 1878, a yellow fever epidemic besieged the
people of the Mississippi River Valley, during which time
approximately 120,000 cases of yellow fever were reported and
20,000 people died;
Whereas, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the Sisters closed
a local parochial school to nurse the sick, with 6 of the
Sisters succumbing to yellow fever between September 22 and
October 11, 1878, which prompted the townspeople to erect a
monument at the gravesites of the 6 Sisters, honoring their
service and sacrifice;
Whereas, in 1918, 29 Sisters, along with sisters from other
orders, helped nurse over 10,000 wounded and sick World War I
soldiers at Camp Taylor, in Louisville;
Whereas the Sisters, finding the soldiers sleeping on bare
mattresses and dressed in uniforms and boots, requested bed
linens and hospital clothing for the sick and wounded at Camp
Taylor;
Whereas 90 soldiers, many with Spanish Influenza and battle
wounds, died during the night that the Sisters first arrived
at Camp Taylor;
Whereas deaths at Camp Taylor noticeably declined as the
Sisters provided skilled nursing and a commitment to hygiene;
Whereas an officer remarked that he knew when a Sister was
in the barracks at Camp Taylor, because the men were
especially quiet and well-mannered;
Whereas, by the mid-20th century, the Sisters were located
in 10 States, taught in more than 100 elementary schools, 30
secondary schools, 2 colleges, and 6 schools of nursing, and
cared for the sick in 12 hospitals and children in 6
orphanages;
Whereas the Sisters opened their first foreign mission in
India in 1947, and subsequent foreign missions in Belize in
1975, Nepal in 1979, and Botswana in 2000;
Whereas, in 1986, Nazareth Home, a nursing care facility
that the Sisters opened in 1976, in Louisville, became the
first long-term care facility in Kentucky to accept HIV/AIDS
patients;
Whereas, as of November 2012, the Sisters--
(1) staff an HIV/AIDS hospice and administer 2 preschools
in Botswana; and
(2) provided disaster relief and housing assistance in many
places, including--
(A) New Orleans, Louisiana;
(B) Joplin, Missouri;
(C) Nelson County, Kentucky;
(D) Appalachia; and
(E) Belize; and
Whereas the Sisters find inspiration and strength for their
service in the words of 2 Corinthians 5:14, ``Caritas Christi
urget nos'' (``the charity of Christ urges us''): Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) commemorates the 200th anniversary of the founding of
the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (referred to in this
resolution as the ``Sisters''), on December 1, 1812;
(2) commends the dedicated service of the Sisters who
provided nursing care during the Civil War, World War I, and
epidemics of yellow fever, cholera, and smallpox in the
South;
(3) recognizes the service of the Sisters in providing
health care on the frontier of Kentucky and elsewhere through
the establishment of hospitals in Kentucky, 4 other States,
the District of Columbia, and abroad;
(4) lauds the role that the Sisters continue to play in
providing education, health care, and nursing home care in
response to the needs of economically and socially
disadvantaged individuals, families, and communities; and
(5) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an
enrolled copy of this resolution to the Sisters.
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