Fr. Pavone practices what he preaches. His sermon at the Millersville, Md., church on August 16 was part of a pro-life swing across the country that took him to 14 states in 40 days.

This particular stint is hardly the tip of the iceberg for the dynamic director of Priests for Life. For the last several years he and Associate Director Fr. Richard Hogan have been averaging three pro-life trips per week, preaching in every one of the 50 states and reaching an estimated half-million people with their anti-abortion message.

Fr. Pavone was born into a blue-collar family in Port Chester, New York. At the public high school he attended, young Frank was a star student; he skipped his junior year and took courses at a nearby college campus.

But midway through his senior year, while most of the students were busily deciding which college they planned to attend, Frank was disturbingly silent. His teachers and his parents were concerned. Was this brilliant student, slated to be the class valedictorian, not going on to college? What a waste that would be!

Finally, he explained his reticence: he had been trying to decide whether to join the priesthood.

Frank entered St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, N.Y., and received several advanced degrees in theology, with special concentration in Sacred Scripture.

John Cardinal O'Connor ordained him a priest in 1988. He served for five years as a parish priest in Staten Island, N.Y.

In the meantime, Fr. Lee Kaylor, of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, was busy founding Priests for Life.

He established a newsletter for priests and began to organize the association that would encourage his fellow priests to preach and teach on the sanctity of life.

In 1991 Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco officially approved of Priests for Life as a Private Association of the Faithful, a term drawn from the Code of Canon Law.

In 1993, with the permission of Cardinal O'Connor, Fr. Pavone became National Director of Priests for Life, a full-time position. 'Fr. Kaylor chose me because he knew that I was intensely interested in pro-life work,' says Fr. Pavone. He has been active in the pro-life movement since he was a teenager. 'This is not an association that seeks to be some sort of separate and elite group of priests who claim to be more pro-life than all the rest,' he says.

It's like the many orders and groups in the Church whose members highlight a facet of the Gospel to which all the rest of the Church is also called--just as the Sisters of Charity are not the only ones called to practice charity, and the Blessed Sacrament Fathers don't pretend to be the only ones who worship the Blessed Sacrament.

The purpose of Priests for Life is to infuse the Church with the vigor, enthusiasm and very best resources to carry out its mission of defending life.

Thousands of priests across the United States have joined Priests for Life. Members pledge to clearly and consistently preach and teach about the sanctity of life, and to support and encourage other members of the association.

They receive a bimonthly newsletter and access to homilies, bulletin inserts, brochures for the bookrack, audio and video tapes for adult education groups, and activity suggestions.

Most importantly, they can network with fellow priests who have special experience in dealing with the pastoral aspects of abortion.

One of the most startling events in Fr. Pavone's pro-life ministry is his part in the conversion to Catholicism of Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. 'I first met Norma in Dallas, just when she was baptized by my friend Flip Benham of Operation Rescue,' Fr. Pavone recalls.

After her 1995 baptism as an Evangelical Protestant, Miss McCorvey, who had worked at an abortion clinic in Dallas, became active in the pro-life movement. She and Fr. Pavone kept bumping into each other at various events around the country. 'Often we would happen to be speaking at the same pro-life function,' he says.

Her conversion was a gradual, three-year process. First, Norma asked Fr. Pavone to bless her house. Later, she asked him to teach her to say the Rosary. He brought her to EWTN, giving her the opportunity 'to see the Church in action. 'We were in contact by phone and e-mail,' says the priest. He found her to be 'honest and direct. She would clearly tell you what she thinks about things. She was very willing to learn and open to the truth.'

Miss McCorvey announced her conversion in June. Following the completion of her instruction in the faith, she will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in Rome.

Fr. Pavone will likely be there to greet her, as he currently spends much of his time in Rome. In 1997 he was asked by the Vatican to help coordinate pro-life activities throughout the world as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Vatican office that handles pro-life and pro-family work. 'Cardinal Lopez-Trujillo [the council's president] is very interested in having me spread the Priests for Life movement in different countries,' said Fr. Pavone. (Internet users can find Priests for Life at www. priestsforlife.org.)