Anti-Granholm case taken to Cardinal Maida's door

The Detroit News ^ | 9-2-2002 | Brad Heath

[Notwithstanding]

DETROIT -- Anti-abortion activists took their complaints about Attorney General Jennifer Granholm to Cardinal Adam Maida's doorstep Saturday. That prompted a Catholic church official to say the protests that have dogged Granholm for months are inappropriate. Many of the demonstrators have picketed outside Granholm's Plymouth church since early June. They want Maida to renounce her gubernatorial campaign because they say her pro-choice stand on abortion clashes with her Roman Catholic faith. "For Mrs. Granholm to claim public Catholic support while rejecting a basic teaching of the faith at best is wrong, and at worst is opportunistic and hypocritical," said Nancy Restuccia of Canton, who organized the Saturday protest and prayer vigil by about 60 activists. Responding to the complaints, Archdiocese of Detroit spokesman Ned McGrath issued a statement saying Maida has "called all Catholics and people of good will to affirm the value of life." The message urged Catholics to "familiarize themselves" with a Michigan Catholic Conference election guide that calls abortion "the preeminent threat to human dignity." But another archdiocese official, Christian services director Dan Piepszowski, said the picketing should end. "Let's stop the protests and let's have some dialogue," he said. "In extreme cases, this kind of demonstration might be appropriate. But right now I'm not sure it makes sense." Demonstrators carried signs and prayed on the sidewalk outside Maida's house and the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral on Woodward north of downtown for an hour Saturday morning. Granholm spokesman Chris De Witt said the candidate's position shouldn't put her at odds with Catholics. "She has her personal beliefs, which are consistent with her faith. But she does not believe she should impose her views on others," he said from Lansing. Granholm faces Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus, an abortion opponent, in the Nov. 5 gubernatorial election. Demonstrators said a Catholic candidate shouldn't be pro-choice. "She can't say in good conscience she's a Catholic and supports the slaughter of human life," said Monica Migliorino Miller, a theology professor at St. Mary's College in Orchard Lake who was among those outside the cathedral. "She has to decide what she wants to be."

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Church Militant bump.

[BlessedBeGod]

Maida is a coward.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

But another archdiocese official, Christian services director Dan Piepszowski, said the picketing should end. "Let's stop the protests and let's have some dialogue," he said. "In extreme LIBERAL cases this kind of demonstration might be appropriate. But right now I'm not sure it makes sense."

From this point forward the fight may no longer be as much with the parish as it will be with the diocese.

[Unam Sanctam]

"She has her personal beliefs, which are consistent with her faith. But she does not believe she should impose her views on others,"

This old "I'm personally opposed to abortion but .. " argument just won't cut it. If abortion is the innocent taking of human life, Granholm is supporting an injustice by allowing it to happen, and allowing the imposition of pro-abortionists' religious and moral views on the unborn victims.

[Siobhan]

I pray for Cardinal Maida and for him to wake up and smell the coffee, but I also pray for God to sweep clean the Archdiocese -- even the Cardinal, his staff, and any clergy or religious who are AmChurch apparatchiks.

Frankly, Cardinal Maida is more disgusting than "Rog Mahal" Mahony because Maida voluntarily surrendered his spine when he got the red hat.