WHEREAS, on August 25, 2019, Sister Rosemary Connelly, RSM, and will observe seventy years as a Religious Sister of Mercy and fifty years as Executive Director of Misericordia Home, a community of care, hope and inspiration, maximizing the potential for children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities; and
WHEREAS, Misericordia Home, founded in 1921, provides residential options and educational and social programs to more than 600 children and adults from diverse backgrounds and wide economic strata on its thirty-one-acre North Side campus; and
WHEREAS, in the belief that human dignity is the key to quality life, Sister Rosemary Connelly has profoundly changed and improved the standards of care for the developmentally disabled community; and
WHEREAS, Misericordia Home's mission is dedicated to the principle that each peison should be encouraged to achieve his or her maximum through educational, vocational, spiritual, and recreational programs; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago has been informed of her great milestone by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, born in Chicago, Sister Rosemary Connelly attended Catholic schools and taught in several Archdiocese of Chicago schools; and
WHEREAS, in 1959 Sister Rosemary Connelly earned a Bachelor of Science degree in social science from Saint Xavier University; and
WHEREAS, she subsequently earned her Master of Arts Degree in sociology from Saint Louis University in 1966 and a Master's Degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago in 1969; and
WHEREAS, Sister Rosemary Connelly was appointed Administrator of Misericordia
Heart of Mercy in August 1969 at a time when the institution only accepted children under the
age of six; and
WHEREAS, the first seven years of Sister Rosemary Connelly's tenure were spent on Chicago's South Side, where Misericordia Home was originally located; and
WHEREAS, in the winter of 1976, following the announced closure of the Angel Guardian Orphanage at 6300 Ridge Avenue...
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