Florida Senate - 2018                            (NP)    SR 1944
       
       
        
       By Senator Rouson
       
       
       
       
       
       19-04020-18                                           20181944__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution expressing appreciation to Father George
    3         Clements for his long and productive service as a
    4         Roman Catholic priest and for his vision in conceiving
    5         the One Church One Child initiative and other life
    6         changing and life-saving programs.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, Father George Clements was born in Chicago in
    9  1932, and, in 1945, became the first black graduate of Chicago’s
   10  Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, and
   11         WHEREAS, on May 3, 1957, Father George Clements was
   12  ordained as a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of
   13  Chicago, and
   14         WHEREAS, in 1980, while serving as the priest of Holy
   15  Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, Father George Clements
   16  started the One Church One Child program as a local initiative
   17  to find adoptive parents for African-American children, and
   18         WHEREAS, under the inspired leadership of Father George
   19  Clements, One Church One Child has expanded nationwide,
   20  including One Church One Child of Florida, and more than 100,000
   21  children have been adopted through the program, and
   22         WHEREAS, after retiring from Holy Angels Catholic Church,
   23  Father George Clements moved to Washington, D.C., where, in
   24  1994, he started the One Church One Addict program to assist
   25  churches nationwide in helping recovering drug addicts through
   26  job counseling, spiritual consolation, and professional
   27  treatment, and more than 1,000 churches in 35 states now
   28  participate in the program, and
   29         WHEREAS, in 1999, Father George Clements started the One
   30  Church One Inmate program, a collaborative effort to help prison
   31  inmates and their families as inmates transition from
   32  incarceration to life as productive and spiritually healed law
   33  abiding citizens, and
   34         WHEREAS, Father George Clements, who himself adopted four
   35  children through One Church One Child, is the personification of
   36  Jesus Christ’s teaching that we embrace “the least of these,”
   37  NOW, THEREFORE,
   38  
   39  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   40  
   41         That the Florida Senate expresses appreciation to Father
   42  George Clements for his long and productive service as a Roman
   43  Catholic priest and for his vision in conceiving the One Church
   44  One Child initiative and other life-changing and life-saving
   45  programs.