Date: 2005-02-01
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. I want to join my colleagues and the sponsors of this resolution and my chairman. the gentleman from Ohio . from the committee in congratulating and celebrating the contributions of Catholic Schools and certainly their theme- of this year which is "Faith in Every Student." It is something that those of us who have attended Catholic Schools understand is at the very core of Catholic education. Not only is it the faith in every student. but it is the dignity of every one of us as Gods children. recognizing whether. they be poor. whether they be rich. whether they be working or unemployed. whether they be young or old. each of us carries with us a dignity given to us by God and recognizing our responsibility to one another. As the Catholic Schools have told us very often. we cannot operate in a solitary world. We must operate within the community. And operating within the community has taught us. those of us who have gone to that school and certainly many of us who have not. that we have obligations. We have obligations to reach down and give a hand up to people who need it. We have an obligation to put our arm around somebody who is in need of comforting and stabilizing in a time of crises. These are the basic tenets that you learn in Catholic School. When you learn that in Catholic School. hopefully you are able to carry it through the rest of your life. I know. as one who has spent most of my life in public service. have recognized those tenets when I have beenengaged in the problems of families at risk and children at risk. When I was chair of the Select Committee on Children. Youth and Families in this Congress. we spent a great deal of time with Catholic organizations talking about what do we do for the very young. what do we do for the adolescents. It was the Catholic Church that said. if you are going to start this committee. it was going to be the committee on children and families. They insisted that youth be in the title of that committee because they said. for far too often. public policy has been afraid to confront and discuss and try to deal with the problems of adolescents and teenagers at risk and the kinds of policies that this Congress could call into play and that this Nation could use to help those young people as they go through a troubling time in their life and a challenging time in their life and a risky time in their life. That turn out to be the right move. That turned out to be the right contribution as we had the opportunity to try and see what we could do to better support those young people. Many of my colleagues and all of us are very proud of our time in Catholic Schools. In theMiller families. Catholic Schools run very deep. from my grandfather. to my father. to my sisters who went to Saint Catherines. to myself who went to Bellermine High School under the Jesuits. My one son went to Gonzaga and another to De La Salle and to my grandchildren who are at Holy Trinity in Sacramento. We understand the importance of this education. We understand the importance of the moral education and what we can take away from our time in Catholic 8chool. -what our grandchildren can take away. That is why we rise on this floor to support and to congratulate the Catholic Schools and the contributions that they make to American society. an important contribution to American society. recognizing our obligations to one another to create a community where each and every one of us has the opportunity to thrive. and recognizing so very often that sometimes people are not thriving and that sometimes it is almost through no fault of their own and we have an obligation to help those individuals also. Mr. Speaker. I extend my congratulations to the Catholic Schools in recognition of their contributions. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.