[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 11 (Wednesday, January 20, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REMEMBERING ARCHBISHOP FRANCIS T. HURLEY

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, this week Alaska's faith 
communities are mourning the loss of Archbishop Emeritus Francis T. 
Hurley who passed on January 10, 2 days shy of his 89th birthday. 
Archbishop Hurley will be buried this weekend.
  Archbishop Hurley was ordained a priest of the San Francisco 
Archdiocese in 1951. He came to Alaska in 1970 as the auxiliary bishop 
of Juneau and was elevated to archbishop of the Archdiocese of 
Anchorage in 1976. He served a quarter century in that role until 2001. 
Archbishop Hurley remained active in the life of Alaska's Catholics 
until his death. He had a remarkable career that stretched 45 years.
  Many come to Alaska from other places and leave a few years later 
because they failed to take Alaska on its terms. If there is one thing 
to be said about Archbishop Hurley it is that he understood what it 
took to be successful in our remote environment. He not only understood 
what it took to succeed in Alaska. He fully embraced it. He thrived on 
it.
  No roads connect the island communities for which the auxiliary 
bishop of Juneau was responsible. Bishop Hurley might have stayed in 
Juneau and waited for his 4,000 parishioners to come to him. Instead he 
chose the road Alaskans would take. He learned to fly so that he could 
bring the church to the people, and he piloted the diocesan plane for 
more than 5,000 hours over the course of his career.
  During his relatively brief tenure in Juneau, Archbishop Hurley 
created Trays on Sleighs, an Alaska centric interpretation of the 
senior feeding program known as Meals on Wheels.
  He is responsible for three of the most important social service 
facilities in Anchorage; Covenant House, which serves homeless youth; 
the Brother Francis Shelter, which serves homeless men; and Clare 
House, an emergency shelter for women with children and expectant 
mothers.
  All of these facilities exist today because Archbishop Hurley took 
the initiative to get them built. Near and dear to the archbishop's 
heart was the ``Joy Community,'' which helped Catholics with 
developmental disabilities prepare to receive the sacraments. And these 
are just a few of many legacies he has left around the State. He also 
founded two Catholic newspapers: the Inside Passage in Juneau and the 
Catholic Anchor in Anchorage.
  You might say that this is all part of a day's work for a Catholic 
bishop. But understand that Alaska is a very young State and lacks the 
infrastructure of more established provinces. What Archbishop Hurley 
did is identify the gaps in the social safety net and move forward with 
a single-minded determination to fill them.
  Archbishop Hurley's contributions were international in scope. In 
December 1990, he traveled with Father Michael Shields to Magadan--a 
city in the Russian far east. In a theater, they offered Christmas 
mass--the first public mass in the city's history. Three hundred people 
attended.
  In the following 3 weeks, signatures were gathered to register a new 
church, and on January 4, 1991, the Church of the Nativity of Jesus was 
founded. Across the years, Archbishop Hurley traveled there nine times 
and, on January 14, 2001, celebrated the parish's 10th anniversary.
  As you can see, Archbishop Hurley's contributions were quite 
substantial. Yet he was much more than what he did. Archbishop Hurley 
was beloved for whom he was. He was a charming man with a tremendous 
sense of humor and a knack for remembering names. He was an engaging 
conversationalist. At times, it seemed like he was everywhere; at 
baptisms, at funerals, engaged in the political life of the community, 
tending to the needs of the homeless and the troubled. From the moment 
he came to Alaska, Archbishop Hurley was a man in motion, and even in 
retirement, he never slowed down.
  Archbishop Hurley, respected by people of all faiths, was truly a 
central figure in the spiritual lives of Alaskans for nearly a half 
century. Every time I pass one of the churches that were built on his 
watch or the social services facilities he inspired, I will smile and 
reflect on how blessed I was to know him.

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