Priests for Life
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| Abbreviation | PFL |
|---|---|
| Established | 1990 |
| Type | NGO, Private Association of the Faithful |
| Headquarters | Staten Island, New York |
|
National Director
|
Fr. Frank Pavone |
| Website | http://www.priestsforlife.org/ |
Priests for Life (PFL) is a pro-life organization based in Staten Island, New York. It functions as a network to promote and coordinate pro-life activism, especially among Roman Catholic priests and laymen, with the primary strategic goal of ending abortion and euthanasia and to spread the message of the Evangelium Vitae encyclical written by Pope John Paul II.
On April 30, 1991, Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco officially approved Priests for Life as a Private Association of the Faithful, a term drawn from the Code of Canon Law. The organization was later listed in the Official Catholic Directory. Priests for Life have formed an international association of Catholics called "Gospel of Life", and has requested the Vatican to grant appropriate status and structure in the Church. Bishop Patrick Zurek of the Diocese of Amarillo said that Priests for Life is a civil institution, not a Catholic organization.
Priests for Life came about in 1990 through the work of Father Lee Kaylor, a Roman Catholic priest serving in the Archdiocese of San Francisco; Kaylor found out about a new piece of legislation being proposed in Sacramento, California which he felt went against the pro-life cause - his response was to write to all the other Roman Catholic priests in California, along with his two friends Fr. Frank Felice and Fr. Voight Emmerick, trying to galvanize further opposition to the legislation. Sending the letter turned out to be a timely move, as Kaylor received in response a large number of positive letters and financial contributions to his cause. Encouraged by this, he decided to establish a group which would serve to co-ordinate pro-life action by the clergy both nationally and more effectively - this too met with highly favorable feedback, so much so that Kaylor went to Archbishop John R. Quinn to seek canonical approval for the group. Priests for Life was subsequently approved and granted official approbation as a Private Association of the Faithful on 30 April 1994.
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