Priests for Life Executive Director Janet Morana to Receive Cardinal O'Connor Award

The award is given annually to individuals who have "demonstrated courageous Christian witness in defending the sanctity of all human life."

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (Priests for Life) - 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."

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Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.