Paul Marx (monk)
Paul Benno Marx, OSB was an American Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk, family sociologist, writer, and one of the leaders of the anti-abortion movements.
He was professed on 11 July 1942 and ordained on June 15, 1947. Marx started the Sociology Department at Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota in 1957 and headed it as a department chair until 1970. Marx was the driving force in creating the local universitarian Human Life Center, furthermore the anti-abortion organizations Human Life International and Population Research Institute.
Family
Né Benno William Marx, he was born in St. Michael, Minnesota as the fifteenth child of devoutly religious parents, George and Elizabeth. He was raised on a dairy farm. There were thirteen girls and four boys in the family.Activism
One of Marx's books, The Death Peddlers: War on the Unborn, belongs to the basic literature of the anti-abortion movement. He was a spiritual mentor for his successor at PRI, Steven W. Mosher.Marx regularly edited material about natural family planning and led HLI until 1999. In 2007, he received HLI's Cardinal von Galen Award. Other recognitions gained by the monk of Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville include the Cardinal John J. O'Connor Pro-Life Award from Legatus, Family Life International's "Faithful for Life Award" as well as PRI's Founder's Award. Former US President Ronald Reagan once stated in a letter to Marx: