An informational and educational in-service training day for
Catholic parish respect life chairpersons will take place on Saturday, Sept. 14,
at the Catholic Center in the second floor conference rooms, 795 Main Street in
Buffalo.
A keynote address will be given by Father Frank Pavone,
national director of Priests For Life. The day will begin with 9 a.m. Mass at
St. Louis Church, Main and Edward Streets, Buffalo, celebrated by Bishop Henry
J. Mansell.
This annual training session provides parish chairpersons
with the tools to implement the Bishops' Pastoral Plan on Pro-Life Activities in
their parishes. It also provides an opportunity for them to share ideas and
programs.
Father Pavone was born in Port Chester, and has been active
in the pro-life movement since 1976. He studied for the priesthood at St.
Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie), and received several advanced degrees in
theology, with special concentration in Sacred Scripture. He was ordained as a
priest of the Archdiocese of New York by John Cardinal O'Connor in 1988.
Father Pavone served for five years as a parish priest at St.
Charles Church in Staten Island. During this time he also taught theology
part-time, including in the Permanent Diaconate Formation Program at St.
Joseph's Seminary. In September 1993, with the permission of Cardinal O'Connor,
he became national director of Priests for Life and now serves full-time in this
position, traveling throughout the country preaching and teaching regarding the
dignity of all human life from conception to natural death.
He conducts seminars for the clergy as well as for other
pro-life organizations to assist them in speaking up persuasively on abortion
and alternatives available to women, on healing following an abortion, and also
on the threats against human life through euthanasia, physician-assisted
suicide, and capital punishment. He is regularly invited to speak at national
and international prolife gatherings, and is often quoted in national and local
media. Father Pavone has produced many television and radio programs on abortion
such as his series on the worldwide Eternal Word Television Network. Father
Pavone has spoken internationally and was asked by Mother Teresa to address the
clergy of India on the life issues. He was also asked to speak to the pro-life
caucus of the United States House of Representatives in 1996. The in-service day
is sponsored by the diocesan Office of Pro-Life Activities.
Priests for Life in the News
