Hero of pro-life movement

Richard A. Sokerka

During Respect Life Month, one of the more anticipated announcements is the choice of the recipient of the Evangelium Vitae Medal, given annually by the Center for Ethics and Culture of the University of Notre Dame.

Named for St. Pope John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical on life issues, the medal is a lifetime achievement award given to “heroes of the pro-life movement.” It honors individuals whose efforts have served “to proclaim the Gospel of human life by steadfastly affirming and defending its sanctity from its earliest stages.”

On Respect Life Sunday, Oct. 1, the announcement came that Mary Ann Glendon had been chosen to receive the prestigious medal. In our opinion, there is no one in the pro-life movement more deserving of this prestigious honor.

Glendon is the Learned Hand professor of law at Harvard Law School and the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. She is a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious freedom and a member of the board of supervisors for the Vatican’s Institute of Religious Works. She also served two terms on the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics and is a former president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and has represented the Holy See at various conferences, including the 1995 U.N. women’s conference in Beijing where she led a Vatican delegation that advocated for the dignity of women and children in the face of international pressure to expand abortion access. She is also a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, said, “Mary Ann Glendon is certainly among the most accomplished women in the Church today.”

Indeed, she is. Her impeccable credentials in working to build a worldwide culture of life most certainly merit the medal, but even more so for her stance in 2009 when she refused to accept the Laetare Medal given by Notre Dame to a Catholic in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society.

The reason? Because she said she could not speak alongside President Obama, to whom Notre Dame was giving an honorary degree at commencement exercises. She said honoring the president would “disregard” the U.S. Bishops’ “Catholics in Political Life” document.

In her open letter to Father Jenkins, she wrote: “A commencement is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision — in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops — to honor (Barrack Obama) a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.”

Mary Ann Glendon’s pro-life priorities and principles are unquestioned and the bedrock of her faith-filled life. Most certainly, she is “a hero in the pro-life movement” and we salute her.