Sen. Durbin Honors Sister Jean With Speech On Senate Floor

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor to honor Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the chaplain of the Loyola-Chicago men’s basketball team, after she passed away last week at 106 years old.

“The phrase ‘Cura Personalis’ is the lodestar of Jesuit education. It means ‘care of the whole person,’ and it emphasizes the need for teachers to cultivate not just a person’s mind, but their spirit as well. No one embodied this ethos better than Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt,” Durbin said.

“For more than half a century, Sister Jean shared her faith with her community in Chicago. She was a professor at Mundelein College, before it affiliated with Loyola [University], where she then became an academic advisor,” Durbin continued.

“Basketball fans might remember Sister Jean as the de-facto chaplain and mascot of the Loyola Ramblers of the City of Chicago. Her cheers were louder than anyone else’s in the arena. She helped lead the Ramblers to the Final Four in 2018,” Durbin said. “Students at Loyola remember her as the person who always kept her office door open, a symbol of her constant willingness to take care of students.”

“I had the great fortune of working with former President Biden to obtain a Presidential Proclamation to honor Sister Jean and the thousands of lives that she touched,” Durbin said.

“While Sister Jean is no longer with us, her legacy of kindness and grace will continue to push others to serve, just as she did… Sister Jean will be dearly missed,” Durbin concluded his tribute.

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