Sr. Mary Pilar Verzosa, RGS was given the “Mystery of Life Award 2012” by the Committee of Life, Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea, last February 15. Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Jinsuk, Archbishop of Seoul, gave her the award at a formal dinner in Royal Hotel, near the Myeong-dong Cathedral in Seoul.
Photo: front row – Apostolic Nuncio to Korea, Filipino Bishop Osvaldo Padilla, Cardinal Cheong, Archbishop Andrew Yeom of the Committee of Life, and Bishop Cho, Auxillary Bishop of Seoul,. Back row: Emma Freisinger, Prof Oh, Sr. Pilar and Fr. Cheon. (Click photo to enlarge it.)
“The Mystery of Life Award” was set up at the beginning of the foundation of the Committee for Life in Oct. 2005 in order to support the scholars in the field of Bioscience and Humanities, and people in the field of Social Action who are acknowledged to make a great contribution to pro-life activities.
Sr. Pilar was chosen as a winner in the field of Social Action and was awarded 30,000,000 KRW. The award, signed by Cardinal Cheong, cited Sr. Pilar “for her outstanding achievements in the promotion of the dignity, care and defense of human life.”
During the ceremonies, Sr. Pilar, gave a short presentation on the programs and projects of the organization that she founded, Pro-life Philippines.
The other awardees were: Miss Emma Freisinger, an 80 year old Austrian nurse who has been working with the Koreans who have Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) since she was 27 years old. Another awardee was Professor Oh It Wham of Catholic University of Seoul, who has been researching and developing the adult stem cell therapy in order to prove its greater effectiveness over the immoral procedure, the embryo stem cell therapy. And the fourth awardee was Rev. Fr. Cheon Hyun-Ho, an environmentalist activist. All three also gave short presentations about their achievements.