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TOUCHSTONE AWARD – Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM
 Father Louis Vitale, born June 1, 1932 in Los Angeles, is a Franciscan Friar and priest who for more than forty years has consistently engaged in civil disobedience and nonviolent action for justice and peace. He has been a champion for the rights of the poor and the marginalized, working with Cesar Chavez on behalf of migrant workers and establishing the Gubbio Project whereby homeless people are welcomed to sleep during the day in the pews of Saint Boniface Church in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.
Fr. Louie has pursued peace in joining a delegation to Iran, in taking part in a Gaza Freedom March to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and in a pilgrimage to Hiroshima. He has raised awareness about issues of torture pursued by governments and institutions, protesting against and seeking to close the formerly named School of the Americas whose graduates are involved in well-documented acts of human rights violations. Fr. Louie co-founded the Nevada Desert Experience, an enduring movement to end nuclear testing. In 2009 he protested UAV attacks in Pakistan. For these and many more nonviolent actions of peace and justice, he has been arrested over 200 times.
Fr. Louie, has received his PhD in sociology from UCLA, was former Minister Provincial of the California Franciscan Province of Saint Barbara and former pastor of Saint Boniface Church in San Francisco. He has been a Franciscan for 50 years and a priest for 47 years. Fr. Louie's models of inspiration are St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Fr. Louie is at this moment detained in a Federal prison. From one of his experiences behind prison bars, Fr. Louie writes these words: "The cell door clangs shut. Now I am alone. But instead of trying to escape this solitude, I enter it deeply. This is where I am. These days are a journey into a new freedom and a slow transformation of being and identity: an invitation to enter into one's truest self, and to follow the road of prayer and nonviolent witness wherever it will lead. I am in this little hermitage in the presence of God, in the presence of the Christ who gave his life for the healing and well-being of all. In my little empty cell, I experience a growing awareness of the communion of saints and of the possibility of a world where the vast chasm of violence and injustice enforced by torture and war is bridged and transformed."
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MANDATUM AWARD – Leadership Conference of Women Religious
 The National Federation of Priests' Councils honor the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) with great joy and gratitude. The organization is an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has more than 1500 members, who represent more than 90 percent of the 59,000 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, the conference assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today's world.
From the days when sisters fed and cared for armies of seminarians, to today, when sisters serve as seminary professors and spiritual directors, women religious have a profound effect on priestly formation. From the days when women's congregations literally built and ran educational, health care, and social services institutions across this country, to today, when sisters continue to lead the way in responding to the needs of others with faithful innovation and gospel fire, women religious are our closest collaborators in ministry. From the days when women's congregations stood up to anti-Catholic nativists burning crosses on convent lawns to today, when our sisters pour out their blood to defend the poor in far flung places like El Salvador and Brazil, women religious are prophets who challenge us to enter into deeper relationship with God and each other. In its work uniting the various communities of sisters, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious makes present Christ, who stoops to wash the feet of all in love. Thus LCWR is most deserving of the 2011 MANDATUM AWARD.
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