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DIOCESE TO HONOR
Two leaders in the pro-life movement and two parishes---one in Queens and one in Brooklyn---will be honored at the Diocese of Brooklyn’s 19th annual Sanctity of Life Mass and Pro Vita awards ceremony at St. James Cathedral Basilica, Brooklyn, Saturday, Jan. 29, at 2 p.m.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will be the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass, which is coordinated by the diocesan Family Life/Respect Life Office.
The Bishop will present awards to Frances Moore, a founder of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, and Kathleen O’Connell Murphy, an attorney who has provided pro bono services to pro-life organizations for more than a decade.
Recognition will be given to Our Lady of Grace in Howard Beach and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Bay Ridge as parishes with a wide range of programs promoting respect for life.
In addition, six elementary school students who submitted winning posters, essays or poems in a contest focusing on pro-life themes will receive a trophy, certificate and a cash award.
Selected first, second and third respectively in the poster competition were Moses Syldorf, Holy Family, Flushing; Denis O’Connor, St. Camillus, Rockaway Park, and Kristin Leung, St. Mel’s, Flushing.
The first-place winner in the essay/poem category was William Brooks, St. Agatha’s, Bay Ridge, followed by Michelle Fischetti, St. Frances Cabrini, Bensonhurst, and Caitlin Manning, St. Bernadette’s, Dyker Heights.
The cash awards will be for $200, $100 and $50 respectively.
The Pro Vita Award for Mrs. Moore will note her pro-life activities that began more than 30 years ago when she lobbied against the New York State abortion law. After the Roe v. Wade decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, she motivated pro-life supporters to take part in the annual March for Life in Washington.
On Oct. 7, 1989, she became a prayerful presence outside the Choices abortion clinic, and from that experience, she, along with four others, established the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Now, there are similar groups on five continents.
Ms. Murphy, a partner in the firm of Murphy and O’Connell, successfully defended the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants in a protracted lawsuit initiated against them by Brooklyn’s largest abortion clinic. The suit sought to ban the Helpers from distributing leaflets and holding prayer vigils on the sidewalk outside the clinic.
As a spokesman for Manhattan Right to Life, she has presented the pro-life position on more than 50 television news programs and documentaries.
At Our Lady of Grace parish, the “Grace for the Unborn” Respect Life Committee targets a nearby abortion clinic for prayers by parishioners, conducts a chastity education program for teenagers, sponsors an annual baby shower for single mothers, and promotes the pro-life movement through exhibits in the church vestibule and the distribution of literature, among its activities.
The Respect Life Committee of Our Lady of Perpetual Help arranges for a monthly pro-life Mass, raises funds for the New York Life Center and contributes gifts to it from events such as an annual baby shower, provides parishioners with information on fetal development, and sponsors the parish’s participation in the annual March for Life in Washington, among its pro-life actions.
Mrs. Catherine Bala, director of the Family Life/Respect Life Office, said the Pro Vita Award recipients join a long list of individuals who have “given substance to the cause of promoting the sanctity of human life.” They include the Blessed Mother Teresa, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, the late Governor Robert P. Casey of Pennsylvania, former Astoria Assemblyman Denis J. Butler and journalist Nat Hentoff.
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