HR0929 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0929 LRB097 21039 KXB 68349 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to honor Sister Patricia M. Murphy, RSM, and Sister JoAnn Persch, RSM, for their years of dedication to helping others; and

WHEREAS, Sister Patricia Murphy and Sister JoAnn Persch have both been educators and administrators; Sister Patricia ministered in Sicuani, Peru, where she opened a school and served as principal for 8 years; they have both ministered to the elderly through service in the Mercy Hospital community outreach program and Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly; and

WHEREAS, In 1990, the Sisters were part of a team of 4 who opened Su Casa Catholic Worker Community for Central American Refugees seeking political asylum; the residents were survivors of torture; in 1996, they moved to Casa Notre Dame which sheltered women in recovery from addictions and also sheltered their children; and

WHEREAS, Sister JoAnn and Sister Patricia became Peace and Justice Coordinators for the Sisters of Mercy in Chicago and currently continue their work as volunteer Peace and Justice Ministers in the Chicago area of the WestMidwest Community; their passion for working with immigrants stems from the work at Su Casa, but they are also called to this ministry by the commitment of their religious community to stand in solidarity with immigrants; their ministry includes advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform; and

WHEREAS, The Sisters have a special concern for those who are being detained and those being deported; their ministry includes prayer at the deportation staging center each Friday morning while people are being deported; that prayer has led them to establish a court watch program in the immigration court; attempts to enter the deportation center and the McHenry County Jail failed, which led to work with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants to have a bill passed in the Illinois Legislature which allows pastoral workers access to the detainees; and

WHEREAS, With the passage and implementation of the bill, the Sisters have trained pastoral workers and developed teams to go into the McHenry County Jail; the teams meet with the detained immigrants once every week; the Sisters, along with the Illinois Coalition and the Interfaith Committee, obtained permission to pray on the buses at the deportation center with those being deported; and

WHEREAS, Since March of 2010, the Sisters are permitted to enter the deportation center and to pray with those being deported and support the families who come to say goodbye; and

WHEREAS, Their current project is the Post-Detention Accompaniment Program for men and women who are released but have no support until they can start life over; Sister Patricia and Sister JoAnn collaborate with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Office of Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education of the Chicago Archdiocese; they are among the founding members of the Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants and work collaboratively with the Priests for Justice for Immigrants; their umbrella group is the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we thank Sister Patricia and Sister JoAnn for their dedication to God's people and their ministry; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Sister Patricia Murphy and Sister JoAnn Persch as a symbol of our respect and esteem.