Anne Burke to meet the Pope

Nice as they get

Sneed has learned Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, the brainchild of the original Special Olympics — is among a delegation of eight invited to Rome on Wednesday for a special audience with Pope Francis in recognition of the international organization’s 50th anniversary.

“It all began on a 90-degree day on July 20, 1968, when the Olympics was born at Soldier Field,” said Burke, who was a special recreation teacher working at the Chicago Park District at the time.

“Children with special needs — intellectual differences — were bused in from 26 states and Canada, but most significant is that almost no one was in the stands to observe the games,” she said.

“Most were volunteers and coaches and brave athletes and, of course, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who had given us $25,000 and had come to observe the games,” she added.

“It pretty much went unnoticed in that chaotic year of 1968, when Robert F. Kennedyand the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were killed . . . and the subsequent riots . . . and the only reporter to cover it was sports writer Dave ‘In the Wake of the News’ Condonbecause his brother had Down Syndrome,” she added.

“That summer day in 1968 was the day this movement — which has now been held in 172 countries — quietly drew its first breath in Soldier Field. It has now become an international movement to erase the stigma of people with intellectual differences, not disabilities.

“All of us have intellectual differences!”