December 9, 2005

Movie producer to receive
Thomas E. Burnett Jr. award

By Brandon A. Evans

An archdiocesan Catholic organization for business professionals is honoring a national figure for his commitment to the virtues of the Catholic faith.

Steven McEveety, executive producer of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ, will be honored with the 2005 Thomas E. Burnett Jr. Heroic Leadership Award on Dec. 21 at Marian College in Indianapolis.

The award is part of a dinner offered by Civitas Dei, in conjunction with the Tom Burnett Family Foundation. The event begins with a Mass at 5:30 p.m. followed by a reception and presentation at the Allison Mansion.

Burnett, whom the award is named after, was the Catholic businessman who joined other passengers aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, to foil the terrorists who had hijacked the flight. In the course of the struggle, the airliner crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

Burnett was the posthumous recipient of the award in 2001, and since then it has been given to a Catholic business person who best exemplifies the faith in the marketplace, along with courageous action, excellence and leadership.

McEveety, who is being honored this year, is the president of Adelphia Media Inc.

The cost of this year’s event is $55 per person, including dinner. The cost to attend just the ceremony is $20 per person.

Shawn Conway, founder of Civitas Dei, said that the event has been successful in the past few years and that an award of this kind is “important for the Catholic community.”

“We need to have heroes,” Conway said, “and we need to identify the virtues that made them do what they do.”

The reason for honoring these individuals each year, he said, is similar to the reason why the Catholic Church honors saints.

The event, he said, is open not only to those Catholics in the business world but also to all those interested in supporting an award like this.

(For more information, call David Gorsage at 317-531-0653 or e-mail dgorsage3@comcast.net.) †

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