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.