Frank Pavone

Frank Anthony Pavone (born February 4, 1959) is an American anti-abortion activist and former Catholic priest.

He is the national director of Priests for Life and the chairman and pastoral director of its Rachel's Vineyard project.

He is also the president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, an umbrella group of various anti-abortion Christian denominations, and the pastoral director of the Silent No More campaign.

Pavone was defrocked by the Vatican in November 2022 after having been investigated by the Diocese of Amarillo for placing an aborted fetus on an altar in his effort to elect Donald Trump as President of the United States and for posting a video of the aborted fetus on two social media sites in 2016.

The media controversy around Pavone involved tweets in which he called then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden a "[expletive] loser" and the Democratic Party "God-hating" and "America-hating."

Pavone also tweeted that he would willingly hear the confessions of Catholics who votes Democrat, "but we are trained that in the absence of repentance, absolution has to be withheld."

In response, the Amarillo Diocese issued a statement disavowing Pavone's comments, saying he used "scandalous words not becoming of a Catholic priest."

Pavone was born in 1959 in Port Chester, New York, to Marion and Joseph Pavone.

His father was a hardware salesman.

Pavone decided to become a priest as a child.

He attended the 1976 March for Life, where he became an anti-abortion activist.

After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, he enrolled at Don Bosco College, a Salesian major seminary in Newton, New Jersey, later leaving the Salesian Order and joining the Archdiocese of New York.

Pavone was ordained to the priesthood on November 12, 1988, by Cardinal John O'Connor, then Archbishop of New York, and was assigned to St. Charles Church in Staten Island.

During that time, in addition to parish duties, he began producing television broadcasts on local cable TV channels.

In the late 1990s, Pavone served at the Holy See's Pontifical Council for the Family, an office which coordinated pro-life activities for the Catholic Church worldwide and his role included encouraging pro-life leaders to establish local projects.

In 1993, O'Connor appointed him as director of Priests for Life.

In 2001, Pavone announced a $12 million advertising campaign designed to welcome women who had had abortions back into the church and worked to combine this work with existing efforts underway through the healing outreach of the National Council of Catholic Bishops.

Pavone was also honored at the annual "Proudly Pro-Life" award dinner which was organized by the National Right to Life Committee and hosted at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York.

After a difference in opinion with Cardinal Edward Egan in New York, Pavone sought and received a transfer to the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas.

Pavone informed Egan that he wanted to continue to pursue anti-abortion work on a full-time basis and that Bishop John Yanta of Amarillo, Texas, had agreed to support this.

The transfer occurred in 2005.

In March 2005, the Diocese of Amarillo announced that Pavone would establish a religious community called Missionaries of the Gospel of Life, a collective of priests and seminarians exclusively dedicated to anti-abortion work.

He delivered the homily at Schiavo's funeral Mass at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Gulfport, Florida, on April 5, 2005.

He was a member of James Dobson's Focus on the Family Institute.

Pavone was threatened with death by Theodore Shulman, an abortion rights advocate.

Shulman indicated that Pavone would be killed if Scott Roeder, the murderer of George Tiller (who had been an abortion provider from Wichita, Kansas), was acquitted.

In 2007, Bishop John Yanta, with the approval of the Holy See, suppressed the community.

In 2008, the Diocese of Amarillo and Priests for Life issued a statement indicating that the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life would merge with Priests for Life.

Pavone indicated that the priestly formation activities of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life were interfering with his anti-abortion advocacy efforts.

Pavone and Priests for Life announced that on November 11, 2019, by a decree of the Holy See, the Congregation for the Clergy had dismissed Bishop Zurek's restrictions formerly placed upon Pavone and authorized him to transfer from the Diocese of Amarillo and find a bishop who supported his ministry.

In 2022, Pavone was working with a team of canon lawyers on various issues, and seeking incardination in a new, unspecified diocese.

Pavone was dismissed from the priesthood and laicized by decree of the Dicastery for the Clergy for "blasphemous communications on social media" and "persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop".

The prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy wrote a letter, dated November 9, 2022, explaining that the decision was not open to appeal.

The apostolic nuncio, Christophe Pierre, communicated this decision to the bishops of the United States on December 13, 2022.

A spokeswoman for his team told the National Catholic Register that Pavone had participated in the canonical process that led to his laicization.

Pavone continued to celebrate Mass until December 17, and the Priests for Life website called him a priest in good standing.

The Schindler family (Terry Schiavo's parents) stated that they stand with Pavone in the laicization issue.

When contacted by the Catholic News Agency on December 17, Pavone told the reporter that it was the first he had heard of the decision, although by mid-January 2023, Pavone stated that it was possible he had been sent a notice before the November 9 communication and he "simply did not see it".

A few days later, on December 19, Pavone stated that "[t]his idea that any of this is permanent in terms of dismissal from the priesthood is simply incorrect, because we're going to continue", and added that in the future "there will be a next pope, and the next pope can reinstate me".

Pavone provided much commentary during the Terri Schiavo controversy, having been on the limited visitors' list and at her bedside many times, including during her final hours.