Pro Vita Award winners are witnesses to life through word and action

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Above: Award winner Thomas D’Onofrio with Lisa Hall, Dr. Amy Sansone and Bishop Lucia. (Sun photo | Chuck Wainwright)

By Elizabeth Landry, Staff writer

During the Jan. 18 Mass for Life at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, Superintendent of Catholic Schools Dr. Amy Sansone announced the winners of this year’s Bishop Moynihan Pro Vita Awards. Created by the Office of Family/Respect Life, the awards were established to honor the legacy of the late Bishop Moynihan, a fearless leader in the pro-life movement.

To be considered for the awards, high school seniors from any school within the diocese were invited to submit an essay answering the questions, “Why are you pro-life and how will you help build a culture of life?”

This year, almost 20 submissions were received by the Office of Family/Respect Life, and three winners were selected: Matthias Patyi (Bishop Grimes), Thomas D’Onofrio (Seton Catholic Central) and Teaghan Barker (Notre Dame). Combined, the students’ awards totaled $2,500. Matthias and Thomas were present at the Mass for Life, and Matthias also served as a lector during the liturgy.

As expressed by Respect Life program coordinator, Charles O’Malley, many of the essay submissions successfully captured the entire spectrum of the pro-life cause, from abortion issues to end-of-life care, including assisted suicide.

“I think that all of our [scholarship] winners did a good job of understanding the full depth of the issues,” O’Malley said. “ I think people hear ‘pro-life’ and they think of abortion [only] and our winners did a very good job of balancing [with other issues]. So they did a good job focusing on the whole scope and breadth … showing that they do care about life in every stage.”

When asked about the main focus of his essay, Matthias echoed O’Malley, saying, “Being pro-life isn’t just about abortion. Being pro-life means protecting everybody, whether they’re elderly, whether they’re disabled.” He also added that everybody “should be able to get the protection that they need [in] every stage of their life.”

Thomas, who plans to attend Villanova in the fall, shared that his journey toward becoming a pro-life advocate began when he attended the 2021 Steubenville Youth Conference.

“I had a real revelation if you call it that, [at] adoration at Steubenville. I felt the real presence of God that I never previously felt before. That’s what I wrote about. And basically, from that point on, I just wanted to learn more about God and more about the faith, and that turned into me learning about pro-life and what that really means.”

Both Matthias and Thomas are actively involved in pro-life clubs at their schools, expressing their pro-life values not only through the written word but also through their actions. Thomas said the club at his school, which he helped start, is one that “combines everything, whether you’re pro-life [or] new to the faith … [it’s] a club that everyone can join and everyone can feel comfortable in.” Matthias shared that in his essay, he wrote about how “even in the pro-life club, we don’t [all] agree on abortion.”

“The most fundamental right we all have, beginning at our own conception in the womb, is the right to life,” said Bishop Douglas J. Lucia in his Mass for Life homily. “And that’s what we’re here to proclaim … not to throw it into people’s faces, as much as to remind people of that good news, of the good news of how valuable the human person is.”