[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE LIFE OF FATHER MAC

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                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 4, 2005

  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and reflect 
the life of Monsignor Ignatius McDermott, who many called Father Mac, a 
Chicago Priest who helped thousands of people with drug and alcohol 
abuse.
  Father Mac was born on Chicago's South Side in 1909 to an Irish 
Catholic family. He attended St. Gabriel Catholic School and then 
graduated from the former Visitation Catholic School. He was ordained 
in 1936 after studying at Quigley Preparatory Seminary and Mundelein's 
St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.
  During his leave from the seminary in 1930, Father Mac traveled daily 
through ``Skid Row'' to get to his job at Arlington Park racetrack. 
From his daily encounters of seeing the despair of alcohol and 
substance abuse, he began ministering to the homeless and alcoholics--
the forgotten populations. Working toward a solution, Father Mac 
founded the Addiction Counseling Education Services in 1961, which 
provided counseling to alcoholics and other substance abusers who had 
no other means to get help. He would later expand his work to the 
Chicago schools system, where he developed an alcohol education 
curriculum and fostered Alternatives to Expulsion, a program to help 
teachers salvage addicted teenagers who were willing to give up 
drinking and drugs and resume their studies.
  After serving as a parish priest and Chicago Archdiocese 
administrator, Father Mac devoted full time to helping those who could 
not help themselves and co-founded Haymarket Center. This Center is the 
largest drug abuse treatment center in Chicago serving an average of 
18,000 clients annually. Haymarket truly changes individuals' lives 
with providing integrated treatment services, job training and serves 
as one of the few facilities that assist addicted mothers through 
pregnancy seeing the delivery of over 900 drug free babies. Haymarket 
Center serves as a model for other treatment programs throughout the 
Nation.
  Ironically, on New Years Eve, as Haymarket Center celebrated its 29th 
year, Father Mac passed at the age of 95. Sadly, we lose a man of 
unwavering faith, deep compassion, and tireless devotion to helping 
those who are among the most desperate and needy.
  The Chicago Sun-Times call him Chicago's Living Saint. Others call 
him the patron saint of the addicted. It is hard to find words to 
describe the care, love and compassion Father Mac had for all people--
especially those that everyone else forgot about.
  Last Congress, I introduced a resolution with my colleagues from 
Illinois, Speaker Hastert, Congressman LaHood, and the former 
Congressman Lipinski to honor Father Mac with the Congressional Gold 
Medal. I would like to thank my 114 colleagues who cosponsored this 
legislation. In memory of Father Mac, one of his favorite quotes read: 
``When you no longer burn with love, others will die of the cold.'' St. 
Vincent DePaul,

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