Celebrate Life Magazine - Fall 2017

DeMoss. “God blessed me with a
long life,” Mara said at the dinner.
“During that lifetime I have formed
a clear perception of the absolute
sanctity of life and the unshakable
conviction that, of all God’s gifts, it
is the most precious—and is becoming
the most tenuous,” he told the
700 people in attendance. “We live
in an age,” he went on to say, “when
Bowl XXI, defeating the Denver
Broncos in 1987, Mara called six
players on the winning team to put
together a video called “Champions
for Life.” American Life League
worked in concert with Mara to
produce “Champions for Life,” a
video which sparked the creation of
Life Athletes. Included in the message
the athletes delivered is the
monies of the event. “We are rightly
concerned,” he told the gathering,
“about the thousands of innocent
men, women, and children in villages
far, far away with names we
cannot pronounce. But here at
home, the same government that is
outraged at what’s going on in
Kosovo is using every trick, every
lie, every device possible to allow
the current ongoing killing of
almost 1.4 million totally innocent
American children every year in
places with names we know very
well, like Los Angeles and Dallas
and New York and Miami.”
Stein, who played the boring
high school teacher in the 1986
comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is
anything but boring when it comes
to the defense of innocent life. “For
me, the number one issue is right to
life,” he said. “The thing about
Hollywood people is they think of
themselves as workers and proletarians
and the warriors of the revolution,
but they’re also snobs. They’re
incredible snobs.”
Wellington Mara (center) with a priest-friend, George Martin (left), and Mark Bavaro
(right) of the New York Giants.
mankind, in its arrogance, seeks to
abrogate to itself the right to limit or
deny life to the afflicted and the
unborn. That is the challenge of our
generation. The challenge and the
shame.” He looked to Life Athletes
to provide critically needed role
models for America’s youth.
Chris Godfrey, the executive
director of Life Athletes, and owner
of a Super Bowl ring, thanked Mara
for being a man of exceptional
integrity. “But more importantly,”
he said, “I’d like to thank him for
asking me to walk alongside of him
to build a culture of life, which, in
the bigger picture, is far more
important than winning a Super
Bowl.” After the Giants won Super
20 Celebrate Life Magazine | FALL 2017
importance of chastity. Masculinity
does not imply promiscuity. (You
can watch “Champions for Life”
online at bit.ly/ALL-CFL).
Ben Stein, movie actor, law professor,
television personality, presidential
speech writer, and pro-life
advocate served as master of cere-
Mara’s legacy
Monsignor George Rutler, a close
friend of Mara, reminded the world
of the importance of Mara’s legacy.
Whether he attended the funeral of
Rutler’s mother or a birthday party
for the Monsignor, Mara was always
“The archetypal Catholic gentleman
distinguishing himself in his prolife
work, very practically engaging
football stars in his “Athletes for
In addition to working with American Life League to
make “Champions for Life,” Wellington Mara served
on ALL’s Financial Advisory Board from 1985 to 1991.
ALL pays tribute to this pro-life Giant in a video called
“American Life League Drafts NFL Legend,” which can
be seen at bit.ly/ALL-WMTribute.