The Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) will honor Dead Man Walking author Helen Prejean, C.S.J., and 13 others at the fifth annual Sapientia et Doctrina Celebration on Friday, Oct. 29, at its Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx.

Sister Prejean will be the keynote speaker.

Honorees are nominated by GRE alumni for their outstanding contributions to the life of the Catholic Church and its community. Many of this year’s honorees live and minister in the New York metropolitan area. The honorees include:

GRE Founders Award
• Cathy Canavan (the Bronx)
• Marie Gough (New City, N.Y.)
• Marilyn Martin (the Bronx)
• RuthAnne Rubin (Coconut Creek, Fla.)

Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J., Award for Service to the Hispanic Community
• Juan Lulio Blanchard (the Bronx)

Sapientia et Doctrina Awards
• Paul Carty (the Bronx)
• David Cervini (Manhattan)
• Sister Pauline Chirchirillo, P.B.V.M. (Manhattan)
• Gaynell Cronin (Croton on Hudson, N.Y.)
• Joseph Currie, S.J. (Bronx)
• Dr. Thomas E. Legere (Philadelphia)
• Monsignor Michael Motta (West Hartford, Conn.)
• Maureen Sullivan, O.P. (Bedford, N.Y.)
• Church of the Presentation (Upper Saddle River, N.J.)

Gaudium et Spes Award
• Helen Prejean, C.S.J. (New Orleans)

Sister Prejean is the best-selling author of Dead Man Walking, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated book that spawned an Oscar-winning motion picture and an internationally acclaimed opera. Prejean is a tireless speaker and activist against the death penalty. A more detailed biography can be found on the GRE page of the Fordham website.

The event begins at 6 p.m. in the McGinley Ballroom in the McGinley Center on the Rose Hill campus. For more information, contact the office of the GRE dean at (718) 817-4800 or visitwww.fordham.edu/GRE.

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Gina Vergel is Senior Director of Communications. She oversees the digital news coverage, public relations, and social media for the university. Before joining Fordham in 2007, Gina worked as a reporter for the Home News Tribune, and The Ridgewood News, where she won Society of Professional Journalist (New Jersey chapter) awards for breaking news and feature writing, respectively. She can be reached at gvergel@fordham.edu or (646) 579-9957.