In February of 2014, John Smeaton, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the UK’s largest and the world’s oldest pro-life organisation, was awarded the 2013 Cardinal John J. O’Connor Pro-Life Award by the Pro-Life Committee of Legatus. Legatus, founded in 1987, helps top-ranking Catholic executives become “ambassadors for Christ”.
Accepting the award, Mr Smeaton said: “I am deeply honoured to receive the Cardinal John J O’Connor award. It’s also an award which honours all of my fellow workers in SPUC and its members, who are the salt of the earth. The roll call of previous recipients of the Cardinal John J O’Connor – several of whom I have the honour to know personally – is humbling and inspiring. May the prophetic work of Legatus, and its ambassadors for Christ in the US and throughout the world, continue to inspire and guide the world in our struggle to build anew a culture a life in our troubled world.”
You can read the full address here (John Smeaton – Legatus Address), which is as relevant today as it was then.
