Father Frank Pavone to Speak at Saint Vincent Seminary

As part of its Catholic Speakers’ Series, Saint Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, is offering a Responsible Citizenship Program examining the interplay between faith, politics and professional life. As part of this program, Father Frank Pavone, president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, will address pro-life issues on Monday, September 13. His talk is entitled “Faithful Citizenship: Catholic Social Teaching and the Political Process.” Father Pavone will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Science Center Amphitheater on the Saint Vincent campus. The program is free and open to the public.

Father Pavone was born in Port Chester, New York and has been active in the pro-life movement since 1976. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York by Cardinal John O’Connor in 1988. He served for five years as a parish priest in Staten Island, and taught theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary and other institutions.

In 1993, with the permission of Cardinal O’Connor, he became National Director of Priests for Life. In this full time position, he has traveled to all of the 50 states and to five continents, preaching and teaching against abortion and helping other priests to do the same.

He conducts seminars on pro-life strategy and is regularly invited to speak at national and international pro-life gatherings. Father Pavone is often quoted in papers such at the New York Times, the Washington Times, and other national media. He has produced television and radio programs for EWTN, The Odyssey Network, Catholic Family Radio, Vatican Radio, and other outlets. He has appeared on national broadcasts such as Hannity and Colmes and The O’Reilly Factor. His articles on pro-life issues are regularly published around the world. Under his guidance, the Priests for Life staff has grown to 45 full-time paid employees.

Father Pavone was asked by Mother Teresa to address the clergy of India on life issues. He was also asked to speak to the pro-life caucus of the United States House of Representatives.

Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of the Supreme Court’s abortion decision Roe vs. Wade, called Father Pavone “the catalyst that brought me into the Catholic Church.”

In 1997 he was asked by the Vatican to help co-ordinate pro-life activities throughout the world as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

In 1999, the Daily Catholic named Father Pavone among the Top 100 Catholics of the Century. He serves on Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family Institute. He is the recipient, for the year 2001, of the Proudly Pro-life Award of the National Right to Life Committee. In 2002, in recognition of his pro-life work, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. In 2003, Father Pavone was elected to be the President of the National Pro-life Religious Council, a coalition of groups from many different denominations working to end abortion.

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