It Sounds Like the Priest Is More Afraid of Offending Pro-Aborts in His Parish
Last month I shared a little about the group of 2011 Crossroads Pro-Life walkers who stopped at DBQ Co Right to Life. Their T-shirts were anything but political. The front said PRO LIFE & the back had the group name & a map of the USA. Except for fact these say PRO VIE (French for Pro-Life) they do not look any more political. So I have to wonder what the real reason is. & given what i know, I suspect the answer lies elsewhere. & a clue to that may lie in how the priest was dressed according to the article. It sounds to me like he is more concerned with being a fashion plate than a priest. & I also suspect, less than fully supportive of Catholic teaching in the Pro-life area. Now this is just my opinion. I may be wrong. But I suspect at the least he didn't want to offend anyone who might be Pro-abort & big bucks donor. I have become very much aware that many dioceses in Cananda are even worse than the USA in speaking out on Pro-life issues.
In addition the contacting Fr. Gagne as the article suggests, you might want to contact the Archbishop:
His Eminence Jean-Claude Turcotte
His Eminence Jean-Claude Turcotte
Archbishop of Montréal
2000, rue Sherbrooke Ouest
2000, rue Sherbrooke Ouest
Montréal (QC) H3H 1G4 CANADA
Tel: (514) 931-7311
Fax:(514) 925-4335
E-mail: seccard@diocesemontreal.org
If you do write the Archbishop just express your concern about them being banned without any speculation as to why. These young adults were there clearly to pray. & clearly to pray for an end to abortion, something that the magesterial teaching of the Church says we are to do.
Pro-Life T-shirts bar Crossroads walkers from Montreal basilica
MONTREAL, August 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Montreal priest has turned away young pro-life pilgrims from entering the city’s basilica because their message in defense of the unborn was too political.
Wearing stylish jeans and a white button-down shirt, Fr. Robert Gagne, PSS, insisted that the young people walking across Canada to promote the pro-life message could not enter the famous Basilica to pray because of the ‘pro-life’ message emblazoned on their T-shirts.
The historic Notre Dame Basilica, run by the Sulpician priests (PSS) since 1657, is a Gothic masterpiece that charges a $10 entrance fee most days, unless pilgrims are there to pray or attend Mass.
Today, the dozen or so youth walking across Canada to spread the pro-life message arrived in Montreal. As is their custom, the Crossroads team went to church to pray, this time at the Basilica of Notre Dame.
But at the entrance where a guard normally asks if visitors have come to pray or to sightsee, the group was not asked about their intentions but simply told they could not come in with their pro-life T-shirts.
The T-shirts were in French stating ‘pro-vie’ in large letters across the font. The French-language tees came courtesy of Campaign Life Coalition’s Quebec branch – Campagne Quebec Vie (CQV). CQV President Georges Buscemi was at the Basilica Monday to pray with the Crossroads team.
Buscemi said he was taken aback at the rejection - especially in light of the scanty clothing and 50-cent T-shirts passing muster at the same entrance - and told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) it was like Notre Dame had been caught being a ‘den of thieves’ rather than a house of worship.
Walk leader Mike Hayden said he and and another of the team asked to speak with someone in charge and spent much time trying to convince Fr. Robert Gagne to allow the team into the church to pray.
Hayden told LSN that the priest, like the guards before him, insisted that the pro-life T-shirts were political and thus forbidden.
“We tried to argue that it was a moral issue, not a political one,” said Hayden. “We’re not here to pass out info, just to pray to Jesus for the love of God. You’re a priest. We are Catholic young pilgrims here to pray to Jesus,” Hayden recalls saying to repeated refusals from Fr. Gagne.
“We’ve never been refused anywhere before,” Hayden told LSN, “never refused entrance or service at a restaurant or a museum.”
Exasperated, Hayden said he informed the priest that he would be going to the media with the story of his refusal. At that point, says Hayden, the priest left to make a phone call and then grudgingly granted the group entrance to the adoration chapel through a side entrance not visible to the public.
After a time of prayer in the chapel the young pro-life pilgrims sang a hymn together before departing.
One of the walkers, Mary Barrett, told the group of an inspiration she had during prayer which gave the walkers great consolation: that Christ too preached in his own temples and was driven out and rejected. “We were called to share in his suffering,” she said.
LSN attempted to reach Fr. Gagne to respond to the story but he did not return the call by press time.
Contact info:
Basilica of Notre Dame
Wearing stylish jeans and a white button-down shirt, Fr. Robert Gagne, PSS, insisted that the young people walking across Canada to promote the pro-life message could not enter the famous Basilica to pray because of the ‘pro-life’ message emblazoned on their T-shirts.
The historic Notre Dame Basilica, run by the Sulpician priests (PSS) since 1657, is a Gothic masterpiece that charges a $10 entrance fee most days, unless pilgrims are there to pray or attend Mass.
Today, the dozen or so youth walking across Canada to spread the pro-life message arrived in Montreal. As is their custom, the Crossroads team went to church to pray, this time at the Basilica of Notre Dame.
But at the entrance where a guard normally asks if visitors have come to pray or to sightsee, the group was not asked about their intentions but simply told they could not come in with their pro-life T-shirts.
The T-shirts were in French stating ‘pro-vie’ in large letters across the font. The French-language tees came courtesy of Campaign Life Coalition’s Quebec branch – Campagne Quebec Vie (CQV). CQV President Georges Buscemi was at the Basilica Monday to pray with the Crossroads team.
Buscemi said he was taken aback at the rejection - especially in light of the scanty clothing and 50-cent T-shirts passing muster at the same entrance - and told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) it was like Notre Dame had been caught being a ‘den of thieves’ rather than a house of worship.
Walk leader Mike Hayden said he and and another of the team asked to speak with someone in charge and spent much time trying to convince Fr. Robert Gagne to allow the team into the church to pray.
Hayden told LSN that the priest, like the guards before him, insisted that the pro-life T-shirts were political and thus forbidden.
“We tried to argue that it was a moral issue, not a political one,” said Hayden. “We’re not here to pass out info, just to pray to Jesus for the love of God. You’re a priest. We are Catholic young pilgrims here to pray to Jesus,” Hayden recalls saying to repeated refusals from Fr. Gagne.
“We’ve never been refused anywhere before,” Hayden told LSN, “never refused entrance or service at a restaurant or a museum.”
Exasperated, Hayden said he informed the priest that he would be going to the media with the story of his refusal. At that point, says Hayden, the priest left to make a phone call and then grudgingly granted the group entrance to the adoration chapel through a side entrance not visible to the public.
After a time of prayer in the chapel the young pro-life pilgrims sang a hymn together before departing.
One of the walkers, Mary Barrett, told the group of an inspiration she had during prayer which gave the walkers great consolation: that Christ too preached in his own temples and was driven out and rejected. “We were called to share in his suffering,” she said.
LSN attempted to reach Fr. Gagne to respond to the story but he did not return the call by press time.
Contact info:
Basilica of Notre Dame
phone 514-842-2925
or 1 866 842-2925
mdesrochers@basiliquenddm.org
posted by Al @ 5:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home