Anti-Abortion Leader Suspended Over Financial Suspicions

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/endenizen/3283525646/in/photostream/#/">Brian Ferrell</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The Catholic diocese of Amarillo, Texas, has suspended the leader of Priests for Life, Frank Pavone, from active ministry outside the diocese, citing concerns about his finances related to the anti-abortion group. Pavone, whose biography touts him as one of the “most prominent pro-life leaders in the world,” has run the group since 1993.

“My decision is the result of deep concerns regarding his stewardship over the finances of the Priests for Life (PFL) organization,” wrote Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, in a letter to US bishops. “The PFL has become a business that is quite lucrative which provides Father Pavone with financial independence from all legitimate ecclesiastical oversight.”

The Catholic News Service has more:

Bishop Zurek said “persistent questions and concerns” from clergy and laity about how the “millions of dollars in donations” the organization has received are being spent led to the action.

The bishop also asked Father Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, to return to Amarillo “to spend time in prayer and reflection.”

In 2008—the last year that the group’s tax forms are available online—Priests for Life brought in $10.8 million income. While its 990 notes that Pavone made no income from the group, other top representatives were well compensated. The executive director made $95,394, and the vice chairman of the board made $162,253 that year. The group also spent $736,146 on travel—some of which may have funded Pavone’s efforts to promote the group. In 2007, he also tried to start a seminary in Amarillo but was unsuccessful. The bishop’s letter notes that there have been “persistent questions and concerns” about how PFL is spending “millions of dollars in donations.”

Pavone was perhaps best known nationally for his role as an advocate for keeping Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a vegetative state, alive. The group also protests euthanasia, in addition to abortion. The pro-choice Catholic group Catholics for Choice put out a report several years ago looking at Pavone and Priests for Life, noting his outsized role in the group:

Pavone has always personalized the PFL message and image, selling himself—often with large photos of himself on PFL billboards—much as a candidate for office might do.

On Monday, Pavone was in the news announcing the Vote Pro-life Coalition, which was to undertake a voter registration drive for the 2012 election. The election, Pavone told Life News, will be “crucial to restoring protection to the unborn,” and he pledged that “every day between now and November 6, 2012, my colleagues and I will do all in our power to see to it that the elections advance the cause of life.”

Pavone says he will abide by the bishop’s order, but intends to appeal, according to the Religion News Service.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate