Recipients of the Isidore and Maria Award

At the National Catholic Rural Life Conference's 78th Anniversary celebration on November 9-10, Clarence and Caroline Bormann of Bode, Iowa, received the 2001 Isidore and Maria Award. Long-time members of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the Bormanns have provided courageous leadership acting out of their faith convictions on behalf of social justice and support of the family farm. "The Isidore and Maria Award honors a rural couple who exemplify fidelity to a dream, to a vocation and to love which combines family, integrity, stewardship and religion, " said Brother David Andrews, CSC, executive director of the NCRLC. St. Isidore and St. Maria are the patron saints of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. "How appropriate it is that the Bormanns, who are devoted farmers, parents, and community members, be recognized as "partners with God" giving witness to love of the earth, each other, their community and their God," says Andrews. The Bormanns were recognized at the concluding awards dinner of the annual conference held in Excelsior Springs, MO, just north of Kansas City. With the theme of "Advocacy for Nature and Community: A Policy Agenda for a New Millennium", the conference featured noted activists Rick Dove of the Water Keepers Alliance; Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan canola farmer sued by Monsanto; and Mike Callicrate, an outspoken critic of concentration in agriculture. Keynote speakers featured two national leaders of sustainable family farm agriculture: Kathy Lawrence of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and Kathy Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition. The 78th annual meeting also applauded the leadership of Bishop Raymond Burke, Diocese of La Crosse, WI, who completed his final term as board president of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. The new board president is Bishop David Ricken, Diocese of Cheyenne, WY, and he brings to NCRLC renewed attention to the plight of ranchers and rural communities in the mountain states. Bishop Ricken was ordained in the Diocese of Pueblo, CO in 1980; he spent a few years in Rome before returning as the new bishop of Cheyenne, which covers the entire state of Wyoming, in 2000.

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