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Just one week after Cardinal Dolan was voted chairman-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, he promoted the sanctity of life at the inaugural New York City Gala for the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility.
The Nov. 18 banquet at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan kicked off a campaign to raise funds to make pro-life health care available to more women and families in the greater New York metropolitan area, with the goal of establishing the city’s first prenatal care program dedicated to providing medical support to the region’s crisis pregnancy centers.
For the generosity they bestow upon the Gianna Center, the cardinal in his keynote address said the “real heroes” of the evening were the gala’s 230 guests.
He highlighted the life-affirming papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, respectively, and drew a parallel between the three popes and the “embracing, loving, welcoming, life-affirming” center.
“I can’t think of any center more faithful to the teachings of our three recent pontiffs than the St. Gianna Beretta Molla Center,” the cardinal said.
Dr. Anne Nolte, co-founder and director of the Gianna Center, served as the evening’s mistress of ceremonies. She also serves as chair of the archdiocesan Pro-Life Commission and as president of the New York Guild of the Catholic Medical Association.
Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski of Metuchen, a trustee of the center’s governing board, was conferred the St. Gianna Beretta Molla Leadership in Women’s Health Award.
When the New York Gianna Center was a member of St. Vincent’s Medical Center, it faced perils with the announcement of the medical center’s closure. Bishop Bootkoski welcomed the center into St. Peter’s Healthcare System, marking the genesis of the National Gianna Center.
“It is Catholic teaching…It’s pro-woman…We’re there for the women… That has to get on the streets…Pray for us,” Bishop Bootkoski said of the Gianna Center’s work.
Best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark, a Bronx native, was given the St. John Paul II Heroic Dignity of Women Award. “I am honored. I am awed. I rejoice,” she said.
“There’s no greater honor than to be honored as a mother,” said Ms. Clark, who was widowed in 1964 and wrote radio scripts and mystery suspense novels to support her five children.
Even as a little girl, she loved babies, she said. “I put 13 dolls to bed every night,” she quipped, then amusingly reminisced about her first conscious memory: having to share her doll carriage with her newborn brother who arrived home from the hospital before his crib was delivered just as it was time for her doll’s nap.
Ronald C. Rak, president of the National Gianna Center, shared the Gianna mission and vision. He also serves as president and CEO of St. Peter’s Healthcare System in New Brunswick.
Father Jordan Kelly, O.P., pastor of St. Catherine of Siena parish in Manhattan, delivered the closing prayer. St. Catherine’s is home to the Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York, whose mission is to provide comprehensive pastoral care and Catholic ethical formation to the medical communities of the Upper East Side.
“It is a family night. It gives us hope,” said Vincent DaSilva, a coordinator for the Natural Family Planning and Bereavement Ministries of the archdiocesan Family Life/Respect Life Office, in summing up the evening.
DaSilva, 28, and his wife Christina, 27, are expecting triplets—two boys and a girl—Feb. 28. “Our triplets are going to be able to be present,” DaSilva said, “in a world full of life, in a world full of opportunity that may not have been available before. Having a daughter coming up, it’s a great opportunity to say health care will be present for her with lots of positive options.”
