Catholic Culture Prize

“Tradition? It is
an Energy that Transforms Life”
Mary Ann Glendon, lawyer, Harvard lecturer, jurist appreciated by popes, began her career “teaching catechism.” She is the United States Ambassador to the Holy See and has recently been awarded the Premio Cultura Cattolica (Catholic Culture Prize). This is why

by Andrea Mariotto

“I began my career as a catechism teacher. It was very hard, harder than teaching law at the university.” Mary Ann Glendon opened her address at the ceremony in which she was awarded the International Gold Medal of Merit for Catholic Culture, on October 31st. This year the important acknowledgment that the School of Catholic Culture grants to personalities who have “gained distinction at national and international levels for incarnating faith in culture” went to her. In the past, many illustrious names have been awarded this prize, now in its 20th year, for example, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (1992), Luigi Giussani (1995), writer Vittorio Messori, and Cardinals Angelo Scola and Camillo Ruini.
The jury, led by Professor Gianfranco Morra, gave these motives for their choice: “Through her scientific activity, Glendon has shown that democracy is not a series of political structures for managing popular consensus and guaranteeing freedom, above all freedom of speech and of association.” Morra says that the ambassador has stood out for her commitment to “the most urgent needs like defense of life, promotion of the family, and the rediscovery of natural law.” This earned her the esteem of John Paul II, who, in 1995, appointed her head of the Vatican delegation at the United Nations’ Beijing Conference on “reproductive rights,” and then President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences–the first woman to hold this role.
An expert of constitutional law and lecturer in law at Boston, Chicago and Harvard, Mary Ann Glendon has contributed to the defense of the family and of associations. “As Christians, we must give the reasons for our ideas,” she said in reply to questions from Sandro Magister, Vatican correspondent of the Italian magazine, L’espresso. “When faced with behavior opposed to our position, we cannot content ourselves with saying, ‘Personally, I am against it, but I cannot impose my opinion.’ We must emerge from this moral anesthesia.” She stresses the value of tradition in particular: “For many, tradition is a reference to the past, but instead it is a dynamic energy capable of transforming life. My objective has always been to interpret the thrusts of modernity while preserving the value of tradition.”
This challenge lies at the root of the School of Catholic Culture, born in 1981 of the charism of Fr. Didimo Mantiero, a man who, as Cardinal Stanislaw Rilko (President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity) told the 300 people present, “succeeded in making people discover the beauty of being Christians,” following John Paul II’s invitation to make faith become culture.