Catholic Church in Pittsburgh Stymies Pro-Life Activist

If you watched the Republican Debates Tuesday you caught Rudy Giuliani again weaseling his way through his lame argument for supporting baby killing. But this time his alibi got knocked off the air by a couple of well timed and well placed lightning strikes.

Come on, Rudy

Even Rudy looked unnerved as his fellow Republicans jokingly moved away from him and Rudy pointing skyward indicated that Someone Up There wasn’t buying his limp explanation. He said for a Catholic boy this was serious.

While it may all have all been in good fun, there is something to say for the timing and the symbolism of having Mother Nature herself censoring such a travesty as Giuliani’s pro-abortion argument. While the audience roared with laughter at Rudy’s feigned fear, there was something genuinely sobering about the moment.

Giuliani was answering sharp criticism from New Hampshire Bishop Thomas Tobin who had publicly condemned Guliani for his abortion support. Tobin compared Giuliani to Pontius Pilate.

Truth Day Report

Wednesday’s Truth Tour in the North Suburbs was a success even though only two-dozen stalwarts showed up for it. Evanston seemed tame compared to the last few years, and police cooperation was exceptional. In Skokie and Lincolnwood all went well, and the police were friendly.

While there were the usual sad sacks ranting about the pictures, there were also many thumbs up, victory signs God bless you’s and one man who seemed overjoyed to see us out there and insisted that not only was this the right thing to do, but that we should be out there every day. Nice idea, but a bit time-consuming. He didn’t volunteer to be out there with us.

A House Divided in Pittsburgh

Another pro-life activist who takes the signs out to educate the public is Bob Newman of Pittsburgh, PA. Bob is out more than we are, and has made showing the graphic photographs of aborted babies a full-time occupation, so he runs into more resistance that we do. Here’s a list of some roadblocks he has run into recently:

To prepare for a recent Truth Tour he placed an ad in the Diocesan Paper. He could not use a graphic picture, of course, so he used a life picture but still had to face an editorial in the same paper with the innocent ad calling his tour an occasion to “shock and offend” the people.

When he tried to get permission to go onto the Catholic campus, Duquesne, the college President denied the request saying it was counterproductive to the college mission to “educate the mind, heart and spirit.”

The pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church wrote in the bulletin that Bob’s efforts were “terribly misguided and counterproductive.” Letters to the Chancery presenting true stories to prove that the pictures save lives were totally ignored. Bob got instead complaints that these pictures are a “violent assault on young children.”

At a Pittsburgh Catholic Youth Conference parents were warned that Bob’s graphic pictures would be shown outside, and students refused to take any pamphlets on abstinence, STD’s and abortion, while security guards tried to cover up the signs.

At Oakland Catholic High School Bob was told to leave and students refused to take any of his pro-life literature. At Our Lady of Grace pro-lifers were not allowed to leaflet and were told to go home.

At St. Paul Cathedral they were told that a memorial of 400 white crosses was called “too controversial” and the Church of the Nativity said it should not be shown in public but should be “a private memorial.” Come again?

Meanwhile, many Pittsburgh parish bulletins advertised and promoted a foundation that supports Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion in the world, killing over a quarter-of- a-million babies each year in the United States alone.

Bob says that if the Catholic church in Pittsburgh won’t help him, then please, just leave him alone. And you think you have it tough where your are. Our hat is off to long suffering Bob Newman.