[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 8, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E13]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING THE LIFE AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF FATHER GEORGE CLEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 8, 2020

  Mr. CLAY. Madam Speaker, in 1971 the Congressional Black Caucus was 
formed by the following Members of Congress:
  Representative Shirley A. Chisholm (D-NY.); Representative William L. 
Clay, Sr. (D-MO); Representative George W. Collins (D-IL); 
Representative John Conyers (D-MI); Representative Ronald V. Dellums 
(D-CA); Representative Charles C. Diggs, Jr. (D-MI); Representative 
Augustus F. Hawkins (D-CA); Representative Ralph H. Metcalfe (D-IL); 
Representative Parren J. Mitchell (D-MD); Representative Robert N.C. 
Nix, Sr. (D-PA); Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY); 
Representative Louis Stokes (D-OH); and Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy (D-
D.C.).
  Congressman William L. Clay, Sr. invited Father George Clements, 
Pastor of Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, lllinois, to provide 
the Invocation for the Congressional Black Caucus' inaugural Dinner. He 
prayed:

       ``Lord, make the Congressional Black Caucus instruments of 
     Your peace. Where there is hatred, let Augustus Hawkins and 
     Walter Fauntroy sow love. Where there Is injury let Charles 
     Diggs and Robert Nix bring pardon. Where there is doubt let 
     Shirley Chisholm restore faith. Where there is despair let 
     Ronald Dellums bring hope. Where there is darkness let 
     Charles Diggs Bring light and where there is sadness let 
     William Clay bring joy.
       ``O Divine Master grant that John Conyers may not so much 
     seek to be consoled as to console: That George Collins may 
     not so much seek to be understood as to understand; That 
     Louis Stokes may not so much seek to be loved as to love.
       ``For it is in giving that Parren Mitchell receives. It is 
     in dying that the Congressional Black Caucus is born to 
     eternal life.''

  While Father Clements was the first to provide an invocation to the 
Congressional Black Caucus Dinner, he also had many other ``firsts'' in 
his lifetime.
  In 1945, Father Clements was the first African American graduate of 
Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary. He was ordained as a priest in 
1957 and went on to become the first African American priest to serve 
at Holy Angels Parish on Chicago's South side from 1969 to 1991. He 
helped create programs like the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus 
to support African-Americans within the church.
  Father Clements spearheaded the ``One Church-One Child'' program in 
1980, which aimed to spur Catholic churches to find adoptive parents 
for orphaned black children. In fact, he was the first Catholic priest 
to adopt a child, and later adopted 3 more sons. He also started a 
program for people living with drug addiction in 1944, and another for 
incarcerated people and their families in 1999.
  Father Clements also served at other Chicago parishes, including St. 
Ambrose from July 1957 to July 1962, and St. Dorothy from July 1962 to 
June 1969. Outside of Chicago, Clements served at the Diocese of Nassau 
(Bahamas) from September 1991 to October 1993, and the Archdiocese of 
Washington, D.C., from October 1993 to March 2006.
  He was a longtime civil rights advocate from Chicago's Southside. He 
marched with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Chicago, Alabama and 
Mississippi. Father Clements was one of the first voices advocating for 
civil rights for African Americans within the Catholic Church, 
according to Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church on Chicago's 
South Side. His career inspired a made-for-television movie in 1989, 
``The Father Clements Story''.
  Father Clements was born ``George Harold Clements'' in Chicago in 
1932. On Monday, November 25, 2019, Father Clements passed away at the 
age of 87. As a devoted priest, human and civil rights activist, and 
trailblazer, he will surely be missed by the communities he served.

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