Clarification of Status of Priests for Life

Priests for Life is a Private Association of the Christian Faithful, which received its canonical recognition and approbation from Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco on April 30th 1991.

Priests for Life is recognized as a valid apostolate to which bishops and religious superiors may assign priests full time and part time; it is recognized by the Vatican as an entity with which various dicasteries actively collaborate; it is recognized by bishops around the world as they invite us into their dioceses to do ministry; it is recognized by bishops and Cardinals by virtue of the fact that they join our advisory board. It should be noted that Fr. Pavone worked at the Vatican in the late 1990's at the Pontifical Council for the Family, which promoted Priests for Life to the bishops of the world. Fr. Pavone has also served as a member of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life.

Priests for Life is a 501c(3) not-for-profit organization that received it tax exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service in November 1990. This tax exempt status remains in effect today, under the listing shown below:

Priests for Life
Tax ID - 94-3123315
Mailing Address
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314

NOTE: This organization is not to be confused with the inactive corporation, Priests for Life - a Texas Corporation, which was created in 2006 when the Diocese of Amarillo and PFL were working on the joint project of establishing a Society of Apostolic Life called, Missionaries of the Gospel of Life. At that time, discussions were held regarding the possible relocation of the Priests for Life headquarters to Amarillo, Texas. To facilitate this transition, a Texas corporation was formed and non-profit status was obtained in 2008. However, the Texas corporation was never active; never solicited or received donations from the general public, never had any employees and never filed any income tax returns. Priests for Life never executed the proposed plan of relocation and instead decided not to go forward with its Amarillo project. As a result, Priests for Life allowed the Texas corporation's non exempt status to lapse. This inactive organization is under the IRS listing:

Priests for Life - a Texas Corporation
Tax ID - 26-0870447
Mailing Address
20 Ebbitts Street
Staten Island, NY 10306

Why important? The defunct corporation would have had property given to Priests for Life that has either been given back to the Diocese of Amarillo or is in a state of disrepair because of Priests for Life abandoning their move to Amarillo.

The property, from what I understand, was adjoining the Diocesan Offices, so allowing this property to go into a state of disrepair would reflect badly on the Diocese.

It is my personal opinion that Priests for Life has caused the Diocese serious damage in many ways in the past six months -- directly or indirectly.

Pro-lifers were opposing pro-lifers in the Fall in Amarillo.

Basically, both the Vatican and the Diocese of Amarillo forbid the formation of a group of seminarians for Gospel of Life Ministries.

When the venture with Amarillo first came into being, Bishop John Yanta spent a considerable amount of his personal time with the MEV aspirants (seminarians to be).

Father Frank was no where to be found... Too busy with other matters to spend as much with these hopefuls as the Bishop of Amarillo did...

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