Press Kit
The GIVEN Institute
The GIVEN Institute seeks to activate the gifts of women that both the world and the Church are very much in need of. The primary goal of the GIVEN Institute is to help young women receive the gift that they are, realize the gifts they’ve been given, and respond with the gift that only they can give. This mission is materialized through the Institute’s flagship event, the GIVEN Catholic Women’s Leadership Forum, as well as year-round programming such as regional events, leadership skills training, and prayer initiatives.
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2024 GIVEN Fiat Award
Pope Francis has written about hidden saints. Your grandmother might be one of them, he says. Many of the women and men who do the work of daily virtue and faithfulness in the world will not be canonized saints, and yet they are living the Gospel in unacknowledged ways. At the GIVEN Institute, a leading organization dedicated to activating the gifts of young Catholic women, we celebrate women whose lives demonstrate for the rest of us that it is possible to live the Catholic faith in the world — even in the most secular venues. This is why we are overjoyed to be honoring Mary Ann Glendon with this year’s inaugural GIVEN Fiat Award in recognition for her dedication to upholding the values of the Catholic Church through her remarkable academic works, and unwavering commitment to defending human rights and religious freedom worldwide. The award will be presented in the context of the Catholic Women Leaders Celebration held on the final evening of the GIVEN Forum, Tuesday, June 11, and will include a “Fireside Chat” between Glendon and Montse Alvarado, President and COO of EWTN News.
Mary Ann Glendon is the Learned Hand Professor of Law, emerita, at Harvard University, and a former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. She writes in the fields of human rights, comparative law, and political theory. Glendon chaired the U.S. State Department Commission on Unalienable Rights (2019-2020) and served as a member of the Commission on International Religious Freedom (2012-2016), and the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics (2001-2004). She received the National Humanities Medal in 2006. In 1991 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences from 2003 to 2013, and a member of the Board of Supervisors of the Institute of Religious Works (Vatican Bank) from 2013 to 2018.