Priests for Life Executive Director Janet Morana to Receive Cardinal
O’Connor Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jerry Horn, 540-220-0095
Date: February 2, 2009
Staten Island, NY – Janet Morana, Executive Director of Priests for Life, has
been named a recipient of the 2009 Cardinal John O’Connor Pro-Life Award. Mrs.
Morana will receive the award, one of the highest honors in the pro-life
movement, at the Legatus International Summit to be held February 5-7 in
Bermuda.
An activist for the unborn for over 20 years, Mrs. Morana started with Priests
for Life sending out mailings from the basement of her home. “Janet has been one
of the unsung heroes of the pro-life movement,” said Fr. Frank Pavone, National
Director of Priests for Life. “This award is a tribute to all those, like Janet,
who have labored selflessly for the most vulnerable and helpless in our
society.”
“This award is doubly meaningful,” added Fr. Pavone, “in that Cardinal O’Connor
authorized me to come to Priests for Life 15 years ago, allowing Janet, who was
working for me at the time, to also begin an official role in the pro-life
movement. It’s a very, very special moment.”
In addition to her many administrative duties, Mrs. Morana travels across the
country presenting pro-life training seminars. She is co-host and producer of
the Gospel of Life television program seen on the Sky Angel Network and a
featured guest on Fr. Frank Pavone’s Defending Life series on the EWTN network.
In 2003, Mrs. Morana and Georgette Forney of Anglicans for Life co-founded the
Silent No More Awareness Campaign, now the world’s largest network of women and
men harmed by abortion. Famous for their public testimonies and “I Regret My
Abortion” signs, Silent No More members have become an irrefutable voice in the
pro-life movement.
The Cardinal O’Connor Award was established in 2001 by Legatus, a Catholic lay
organization of over 3,200 executives and their spouses founded by Tom Monaghan,
former owner of Domino’s Pizza and the Detroit Tigers baseball team. First
presented to Congressman Henry Hyde, the award is given annually to individuals
who have “demonstrated courageous Christian witness in defending the sanctity of
all human life.”
We are especially happy that Mary Ward, sister of Cardinal O'Connor, will be
Janet's guest at the awards ceremony.
