Threats to Catholic Masses: What’s happening today?
Abortion-rights activists gather outside of a Catholic church in downtown Manhattan to voice their support for a woman’s right to choose on May 07, 2022 in New York City. The protests at the Basilica of St. Patricks Old Cathedral, which have been occurring weekly and where a small number of pro-life activists worship, have been given added urgency by the recent leaked Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade. | Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
by CNA Staff
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2022 / 07:08 am
Catholics across the U.S. kept a wary vigil Sunday for pro-abortion activists to follow through on a threat to disrupt Masses on Mother’s Day.
As of 2 p.m. EDT, there were no reports of any major disturbances.
The call to protest at Catholic churches came in reaction to last week’s leaked draft opinion suggesting a conservative majority on the Supreme Court may be poised to overturn the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Earlier this week, a pro-abortion group, Ruth Sent Us, called on social media for activists to “Stand at or in a local Catholic Church” on Sunday, Mother’s Day. The same group on Saturday vowed on Twitter to burn the Eucharist.
On Saturday, activists blocked the entrance of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Lower Manhattan in New York City. For safety reasons, police at the scene halted plans for a pro-life procession to a nearby Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, as happens on the first Saturday of the month.
“Thank God for abortion,” protesters chanted.
Kathryn Jean Lopez, a columnist for National Review, reported from the scene that a woman dressed in a white bathing suit that had baby dolls attached to it, danced in circles outside the church.
“God killed his kid, why can’t I kill mine?” she said. “Help me abort my babies.”
Lopez said the woman and other protesters taunted and heckled the church’s pastor, Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal.
“Childish stuff, mostly, making fun of the fact that his religious name is not his birth name. ‘Christopher! Christopher! Christopher.’ His given name actually means “Christ-bearer,” so that’s not exactly an insult,” Lopez reported. “Most of their other insults involved accusing him of sexually abusing boys, insisting all Catholic priests do.”
Lopez and others at St. Patrick’s eventually did pray outside the abortion clinic on Bleecker Street.
“As always during these incidents, I’m overwhelmed by how angry and obviously hurt so many of the people who showed up this morning are. Pray for people who wake up in the morning want to protest people who pray for women and babies to not be pressured into abortion,” Lopez wrote.
This is a developing story.
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