Gospel of Life

Richard A. Sokerka

Three people who consistently answered the call of the Gospel of Life were recently honored with the 2018 People of Life awards.

The awards were presented to Janice Benton, a proponent for disability rights; Msgr. Joseph Ranieri, an advocate for post-abortion healing; and the late James Hanson, who campaigned against medically assisted-suicide.

The awards were presented at the Diocesan Pro-Life Leadership Conference, sponsored by the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat on Pro-Life Activities.

Benton has served as the executive director of National Catholic Partnership on Disability for 15 years. Before that, she spent 25 years ministering to people with disabilities, working in areas such as a camp counselor for people with intellectual disabilities. She also worked for the American Coalition of Citizens in Washington D.C., beginning in 1979, where she advocated for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Education for All Handicapped Children Act.

Msgr. Ranieri has served as a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Washington for more than 60 years. There, he has involved himself with Project Rachel Ministry, a post-abortion resource group. He has also encouraged priests, who will hear about abortions in the confessional, “to listen, to be open and to be patient. These people need to talk about what happened, often more than once.”

Hanson was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and president of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund, a strategic and financial support group advocating against assisted suicide legislation. Hanson suffered from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Before he died in 2017, he campaigned against legislation permitting assisted suicide.

Established in 2007, the People of Life award seeks to honor Catholics dedicated to the pro-life movement as described by St. Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical on the value and inviolability of human life, Evangelium Vitae.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website, “Recipients are recognized because, through their personal or professional contributions, they have demonstrated their lifetime commitment to the pro-life movement, to promoting respect for the dignity of the human person, and to advocacy for an end to the culture of death in this nation.”

This recognition is well deserved, but beyond these honorees, we also wish to thank all the unsung heroes who are giving of their time, talents and treasure to the pro-life movement in our nation by living the Gospel of Life. Please join with them in this cause and pray that their efforts and unwavering support will one day lead to a culture of life across our nation.