The Value of Clear Focus in Business & Ministry

Excerpted article from Legatus Magazine

Priest’s For Life Director, Father Frank Pavone shares a key to their organizational success.

One of the reasons for our team’s success in building and sustaining the largest Catholic ministry dedicated to ending abortion is that we have understood, articulated, and preserved our focus. And this is one of the most important things for all groups to do in this Respect Life Month.Every good strategic planner and successful businessman knows that there is a difference between a vision statement and a mission statement (as there are differences between a mission statement, a strategy, an objective and a tactic).

No business can grow, nor movement succeed, without defining these carefully for itself. Some well-meaning but very careless people and groups are substituting the mission statement of the pro-life movement for its vision statement. We speak of “a culture of life,” and “respect for life from conception to natural death.” Those are not good mission statements; they are statements of vision. Statements of vision are broad, idealistic, big- picture articulations of what kind of future you want.

Mission statements, on the other hand, talk about what your group intends to do to move toward the fulfillment of that vision. Who are you and what do you do? What has come to be known as the “pro- life” movement has a mission which is much more limited and specific than “building a culture of life.” It is, indeed, a mission to restore the right to life of children in the womb, protecting them from the violence of abortion.

And the fulfillment of a mission involves various objectives, which are more specific, quantifiable, and involve specific deadlines. So for example, in the case of Priests For Life, we ask churches, Legatus chapters, and many other groups to do some simple things like participate in the Priests for Life Election Prayer Campaigns by promoting the short but powerful prayer at ElectionPrayer.com to be prayed between now and the upcoming election. This Respect Life Month, we invite everyone to recommit ourselves to a specific, practical, and effective pro-life mission to save children from abortion! (Read More at Legatus.org)