Recognizing the Sisters of Mercy on Their 150th Anniversary

RECOGNIZING THE SISTERS OF MERCY ON THEIR 150TH ANNIVERSARY -- (House of Representatives - April 16, 2008)

(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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