Pro-Life Harvard Prof Who Rejected Notre Dame Honor Will Get National Award
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 5, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Mary Ann Glendon, the pro-life Harvard law professor who rejected an award from the University of Notre Dame because it is honoring pro-abortion President Barack Obama and allowing him to give commencement, will receive her own award from a top pro-life group.
On October 6, Glendon will receive an award from the National Right to Life Committee at its Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner on October 6 at the prestigious Waldorf hotel in New York City.
Glendon, a former Vatican ambassador, said last month she would not accept a speaking role at Notre Dame’s graduation ceremonies because Obama will be present and receiving an honorary degree.
Notre Dame officials tried to cushion the blow by awarding Glendon the Laetare Medal, an annual award given in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic church and society.
But Glendon told ND president Rev. John Jenkins that she was "dismayed" that a Catholic university would award Obama and violate the pro-life teaching of the Catholic Church and a mandate from the Catholic bishops to do so.
Glendon told Jenkins she thinks the decision to honor Obama and allow him to address the graduating students at the Catholic college "was in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ express request" in a 2004 document saying that Catholic educational institutions should not give platforms to abortion advocates.
In extending the invitation to Glendon to appear at its awards dinner, National Right to Life president Dr. Wanda Franz congratulated Glendon for her consistent pro-life stance.
"Your continued service to the Right to Life Movement over the years has made a substantial impact on this nation in the defense of life," she wrote Glendon. "By your recent public actions, you have shown again that you stand unflinchingly pro-life."
Glendon is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University where she teaches and writes on international human rights, comparative law, and constitutional law issues. She served as ambassador to the Holy See for the Bush administration from 2007 to 2009.
The National Right to Life Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner returns to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City for the first time since 2003.
Over the years it has awarded elected officials and people in places such as the sports, entertainment and business industries for their pro-life leadership in the face of a pro-abortion culture.
Some of the award recipients include Rep. Henry Hyde, the family of Terri Schindler Schiavo, Richard and Helen DeVos, Pat Boone, James Dobson, Mrs. Arthur DeMoss, John Cardinal O’Connor, Gov. Robert Casey, Rep. Christopher Smith, and Rep. Charles Canady.
Others include Judge Robert Bork, Wellington Mara of the New York Giants, Thomas Monaghan of Dominos Pizza, Lawrence Garvey, Patricia Heaton, and Father Frank Pavone.
In 1997, National Right to Life honored President Reagan with a tribute at the 4th annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner.
Related web sites:
National Right to Life Committee – https://www.nrlc.org
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