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Return to main pagePosted on 05/18/2004 10:53:27 AM PDT by Polycarp IV
Editor's Desk: 'Descent into Hell'
By Michael F. Flach
Herald Editor
(From the issue of 5/13/04)
The recent March for Women’s Lives in Washington received lots of positive media attention. Counterdemonstrations involving pro-life supporters often took the form of silent witness (see ACH 4/29/04, page one). But first-hand reports from these pro-life demonstrators paint a disturbing portrait of verbal abuse at the hands of the pro-abortion majority.
Karen A. Torres and her two daughters attended one of the counterdemonstrations. She was startled to find herself separated from the pro-abortion mob surging up Pennsylvania Avenue by a thin, waist-high temporary fence. She assumed the two opposing camps would be kept apart.
"We walked up to the group praying a rosary and holding large signs of babies in the womb on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street after the march had all ready begun," she said. "Between the noise and the intensity of the moment, no one introduced themselves. We just pulled out our rosaries, grabbed pro-life posters and joined in."
Torres said at the center of the group (which included several Christendom College students) was a young priest who led the rosary while holding up a heavy wooden crucifix. The priest recited the Divine Mercy Chaplet and "faithfully, calmly and courageously" recited all the prayers on a special pro-life handout.
"I never learned (the priest’s) name," she said. "I would like to write to him and tell him how deeply impressed we were by his courage and calm as we all descended into hell together."
Torres said the crowd in the street "went crazy" at the sight of a crucifix and roman collar, coupled with the recitation of the rosary. "It was too much for them," she said. "Women naked from the waist up (except for NARAL stickers) came as close as possible to the priest to scream obscenities and block sight of the crucifix with their signs promoting sex-ed.
"Young men skipping hand-in-hand stopped to ostentatiously give each other big sloppy openmouthed kisses. One enraged man began banging his sign hard against an oversized poster of a baby in the womb, attempting to topple it and possibly its holder," Torres said.
"One man who appeared to be quite serious told us repeatedly that he worshipped Satan and was putting a curse on us. Over and over again we were told that Jesus hated us, God was pro-choice and we were bad Christians who were going to hell.
"But the most hated and attacked target was the priest," Torres said. "For major portions of the march, we could not hear the rosary over the microphone, even though we were only five feet away. At the sight of the priest and his crucifix, people cursed, taunted and chanted slogans, but mostly they just screamed and shrieked incoherently. Between the decibel level and the hate, that sustained screaming was unnervingly like a tidal wave coming at you."
Despite having the worst verbal abuse directed toward him, Torres said, the priest never lost his calm or prayerful focus. He exhibited "patient compassion" in the face of unremitting hate.
"In my 47 years I have never witnessed a better example of grace under pressure — better known as courage — and I would like to write and tell him so," Torres said.
Anyone who recognizes this priest can write to the HERALD at 200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 600, Arlington, Va. 22203.
Copyright ©2004 Arlington Catholic Herald. All rights reserved.
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Nice work Father. I would have killed them all.
Can you help?
We took a busload of about 35 from our area, and got there Friday night. We stayed at the hotel in Arlington with Randall Terry's Operation Witness group.
Saturday morning, we peacefully protested at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in DC, then attended talks by Randal Terry that afternoon at the hotel.
At 5:00pm, Fr. John Nesbella, who organized our bus, said mass in our hotel ballroom (beautiful, reverent mass!!!), with about 75 attending. Then we set up an Adoration Chapel in a hotel room we paid for just for this purpose. We had exposition from 7:00pm til midnite, with approx 60 attending throughout those hours. There were generally 6 to 9 individuals in our hotel room Chapel at any given time, in half hour shifts, praying for the success of Sunday's Operation Witness. It was like a Eucharistic retreat. Father thought of everything...mass kit,
monstrance, prayer books for adoration, bullhorn, crucifix, incense, Holy water, everything.
On Sunday, we arrived at Freedom Plaza with Randall Terry's group, Operation Witness. Our busload then moved to about 50 feet from the start of the March of Death, across the street from the White House museum/tour center on Pennsylvania Ave. and 15th.
Fr. Nesbella brought a 3 1/2 foot crucifix, and a bullhorn, and I stood behind him with a 4 x 8 foot sign of an 8 week old baby in utero, and we prayed the Rosary and Litany of Life and Divine Mercy chaplet repeatedly for
the duration of the march.
Many media photographers shot pictures of Fr. nesbella with his crucifix and bullhorn, but I haven't found any online. I was interviewed by the BBC World Service for their English radio news edition.
I've never seen such a mass of angry and hateful freaks and kooks and perverts in my life. As they passed, they were drawn towards Fr. Nesbella and the crucifix. Several girls stopped and removed their tops in front of
our Rosary group, with only small pro-abort stickers as "pasties", and gay couples paused in front of us to kiss and grope each other. Others hissed and screamed and spit. Father John simply held forward his hand and made the
sign of the cross over them or towards them, at which almost all of them moved on.
The DC police in our area were all professional and friendly with us, with one of them even comforting a 13 year old girl from our group holding her own handmade sign, when several lesbians screamed at her they wished her
mother had aborted her and she broke into tears. Several pro-aborts complained to the police about our presence and signs, but Randall Terry had reserved the sidewalks on both sides of Pennsylvania Ave for our protest, so
we were there with full rights. Apparently the pro-aborts hadn't thought of this, and it really enraged them.
What a weekend.
Dr. Brian Kopp (Polycarp IV)
Despite having the worst verbal abuse directed toward him, Torres said, the priest never lost his calm or prayerful focus. He exhibited "patient compassion" in the face of unremitting hate.
"In my 47 years I have never witnessed a better example of grace under pressure — better known as courage — and I would like to write and tell him so," Torres said.
We were the only group with a priest on Penn and 15th, with a large crucifix and megaphone with mic, so I think its safe to conclude this writer is referring to our group and its leader, Fr. John Nesbella, of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown PA.
God bless our Fr. John, a fearless prayerful priest. Ping!
PS: One enraged man began banging his sign hard against an oversized poster of a baby in the womb, attempting to topple it and possibly its holder," Torres said.
That was my sign he was banging on. He was mad because I could hold my 4x8 foot sign higher than his. He was unable to block my sign so he tried to damage it.
Funny...Anytime there's a pro-abort or pro-homosexual march, you get this peachy-keen picture (usually from the major news outlets) of peaceful folks, just marching for "basic rights". Then you get the real picture - stuff they don't show on TV...Dozens of accounts like this, where marchers display violent and/or disgusting behavior at the smallest display of disagreement. It's pathetic to think that a group of people are so completely blind to truth and decency.
I'm contacting the paper. The priest was the leader of our busload from central PA. He's a close friend, and I'll be forwarding this article to him.
=== Women naked from the waist up (except for NARAL stickers) came as close as possible to the priest to scream obscenities and block sight of the crucifix with their signs promoting sex-ed.
That pretty much puts it in perspective.
bump
The demons were out in force that day. Let those who are not blind, see them for what they really are.
Ping for a practical application of the theory.
However, the following opinion is totally unrelated to the reaction of the above mentioned pro-abortion mob: I do not believe in publicly protesting for the pro-life cause with a rosary in my hand. Not only do pro-abortionists use such occasions and pictures of such occasions to propagandize Americans that pro-life is an issue important only to Catholics, I believe it truly alienates other pro-lifers (even other Catholics) and nonreligious alike from participating in pro-life events and fails to persuade moderates to the legitimacy of the pro-life cause.
Therefore, as a Catholic and a sometime pragmatist, I would prefer attending mass and saying the rosary as a group with other pro-life activist Catholics before the protest or pro-life activist event.
I can imagine how hard it would be to keep from taking your signs and giving some of them a good smack upside the head.
Of course we know that this is the type of behavior that this type of crowd displays. It would suck if they grew a brainstem and acted with some decorum. At least this way, they're disgusting all the spectators.
And BTW, KEEP ME AWAY FROM RANDALL TERRY under whose leadership the pro-life movement was divided and set back 15 years, a setback from which we have yet to recover.
Your observation on the rosary in public could be construed as you say it; however, Our Blessed Mother herself, has said in numerous apparations sanctioned by the church, that we should publicaly carry and display our rosaries always. I trust Mary's petition more than man's logic. I proudly carry my rosary and pray it daily. I leave it on my desk in the open at work, have it in my hands always during mass and it is never not in my pocket otherwise. This give glory to God the Father.
God's law and the truth must be publicly witnessed. We cannot shrink from our duty to let sinners know their ways are not those of God's or ours. The rosary, signs, pictures or passages of scripture are all appropriate. Those that are open to the message do not discriminate between Catholic or Protestant or Jewish belief in life.
Wow. Thanks for the ping. May God judge His righteous judgement upon those who hate the little ones aborning in the womb. God help us all.
I am guessing not.
Let's put it this way, on the drive home, Fr. John leaned over to me and said, "Did you see those girls who took off their shirts? It reminded me that celibacy ain't all bad."
The abortion crowd looked even worse than this.
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