PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP -- Anti-abortion activists have launched a small but vocal movement to excommunicate pro-choice Attorney General Jennifer Granholm from the Roman Catholic Church.
Since early June, a group of 10-30 protesters have picketed outside of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Plymouth Township, where the Democratic nominee for governor is a member. Foes say Granholm is a heretic because she is Catholic yet adamantly pro-choice.
Protesters already have quarreled with police, sued the township and tangled with the Archdiocese of Detroit for ignoring excommunication demands.
The weekend pickets will continue until at least the Nov. 5 election that pits Granholm against Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus, said George D. Stephens, 49, a Madison Heights salesman who is leading the demonstrations.
"Jennifer Granholm appears at campaign stops with a Bible in her hand, but she's not following what it says," Stephens said.
The archdiocese mostly has stayed out of the fray, except to issue a statement reaffirming its opposition to abortion after Our Lady of Good Counsel associate pastor the Rev. Doc Ortman wrote an Aug. 4 article in the church bulletin that defended Granholm's right to be pro-choice and Catholic. Granholm's husband, Dan Mulhern, passed out fliers to parishioners that same day apologizing for the "siege" and asking them to pray for his wife.
On Sunday, Ortman apologized in the church bulletin for causing "embarrassment and hurt" and wrote that he remains opposed to abortion.
Granholm spokesman Chris DeWitt defended the pickets' rights to protest but objected to their methods, which include displaying photos of aborted fetuses.
In July, Plymouth Township police seized graphic placards from at least three pickets. The Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor Township won a restraining order last month allowing the protests to continue with the displays.
The conservative Catholic law firm founded by Domino's Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan has also sued the township, claiming infringement on protesters' free-speech rights. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court does not seek damages.
"The (signs) may be graphic, but if people don't like them, they have an obligation to look away," said Ed White, associate counselor for the law firm.
To: Notwithstanding
To: JMJ333; Antoninus; patent; Polycarp; Aquinasfan
Please Please Please ping to at least 5 new people.
To: Notwithstanding
Protesters already have quarreled with police, sued the township and tangled with the Archdiocese of Detroit for ignoring excommunication demands. I have to be honest with you -- the whole idea of staging protests against the Archdiocese of Detroit is preposterous to me. At some point Catholics have to simply "shake the dust off their sandals" and acknowledge that these people have absolutely no interest in fulfilling their Catholic mission.
To: Notwithstanding
Good news -- thank you all freepers -- there is STRENGTH in numbers.
BISHOP COMPELS PRIEST TO APOLOGIZE FOR “PRO-CHOICE” DEFENCE
Catholics Demand Detroit Cardinal Publicly Censure Pro-Abortion Catholic Candidate
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/aug/02082702.html
PLYMOUTH, MI, August 27, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Amidst pressure from his Bishops and criticism from fellow priests, a Catholic priest who advocated abortion asked forgiveness in the bulletin of Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) Parish on Sunday August 25th. "At the request of Cardinal Maida, Bishop Kevin Britt has asked that I write to allay the fears of some that I am less than Catholic in my dedication to life," began the apology from Fr. Doc Ortman, associate pastor at Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) parish.
Faithful Catholics took to the streets in protest after the parish refused to recant the false teaching Fr. Ortman put forward in a previous parish bulletin which said being "pro-choice" was an authentically Catholic position. In the controversial bulletin the priest was attempting to give support to a pro-abortion politician - Jennifer Granholm - who is a member of the parish.
Meanwhile, other Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Detroit printed condemnations of Fr. Ortman's views. Fr. Dan Zaleski of St. Albert the Great Parish in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, said in his Sunday bulletin that priests who champion the pro-choice abortion view are "dead wrong," and that Catholics who vote for a pro-choice candidate "sanction murder." In his "Sunday Column," Fr. Eduard Perrone of Assumption Grotto in Detroit expressed his desire that the Cardinal apply the "one-strike and out" policy (enacted for clergy sexual-abusers) "to such priests who dissent publicly from Catholic teaching."
Lay Catholics who had been demonstrating outside the parish welcomed the apology but are demanding that Adam Cardinal Maida of the Archdiocese of Detroit further publicly censure the pro-abortion gubernatorial candidate and OLGC parishioner. Matt Bowman, a spokesman for the group said "The lie that a Catholic can be 'pro-choice' on abortion must be clarified now so that Catholics do not vote believing Granholm is a faithful Catholic."
See LifeSite's related coverage:
CATHOLICS TAKE ACTION AFTER PRIESTS DEFEND PRO-ABORTION POLITICIAN
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/aug/02081401.html
See the bulletins on line and the contact info for the parish at:
http://www.catholicweb.com/directory.cfm?fuseaction=display_site_info&sitetype=4&site id=59371&OffAdsOnly=1
Contact information on the Archdiocese of Detroit (See Services)
http://www.archdioceseofdetroit.org/
To: Notwithstanding
GOD ... IS PRO-LIFE
To: Notwithstanding
which include displaying photos of aborted fetuses. I defend their right to picket, and that Grandholm and all those who go against the Pope's teachings about abortion should be picketted, but when you feel the need to display aborted fetuses, you destroy your message.
To: Notwithstanding
Excellent information, it really gives flesh to this battle.
To: Notwithstanding
YOU GO FREEPERS!
42 posted on
08/30/2002 9:06:23 PM PDT by
brat
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