“We come here to mourn the loss of 202 souls, 202 people, God’s children, who were in need of a sense of compassion in the world,” Father Lawrence Sullivan said at the funeral. He serves as the director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
“It is all our responsibility to take notice of when there is suffering, to take notice of when there is need, of when we can use the gifts given to us by God in service of one another,” Sullivan said.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office is responsible for indigent, unidentified, and fetal remains. The Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Cemeteries helps to provide burials for these bodies as a public service. The Cook County Funeral Directors Association, Worsham College of Mortuary Science, and Malcolm X College all assist.
“We pray especially for those who have died before birth, and those who are known to God alone,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “We pray for those who mourn. Comfort them in their grief.”
