Priests for Life Presents First Annual Bernardin-O'Connor Awards for Pro-life Journalism

At the 2003 Catholic Press Association national convention on Friday May 30, Fr. Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life, presented the first Bernardin-O'Connor Award for Pro-life Journalism to three papers for articles on pro-life issues published last year.

The winners in each category were as follows:

• Best Overall Pro-life Feature for 2002: Awarded to Susan Brinkmann of The Catholic Standard and Times (Archdiocese of Philadelphia) for her article "Is It Pro-Choice or No-Choice? Women Deserve Better!" in the September 26, 2002 issue.

• Best Human Interest Pro-life story for 2002: Awarded to Bethanne Scholl of The Leaven (Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas) for her article "Colby's story" in the October 18, 2002 issue.

• Best Feature Analysis of a Pro-life news event for 2002: Awarded to Tim Drake of the National Catholic Register for his article "Catholic Universities Push Abortions to Students" in the December 22-28, 2002 issue.

The purpose of this award is to recognize and promote effective journalistic coverage of issues related to the sanctity of human life. Named after Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and John Cardinal O'Connor, the award is meant to highlight the fact that the Church embraces a consistent ethic of life, and that there is no basis for a dichotomy between "social justice" issues and "right to life" issues. There can be no social justice if the right to life itself is not secured, and there can be no effective safeguarding of the right to life if the human person is not treated with dignity at every stage of development and in every circumstance.