PROFESSOR BANNED FROM CATHOLIC CHURCH AFTER PREACHING PRO

Pastor and Bishop Refuse to Stop Fundraising Dinner in Parish for Militant Pro-Abortion U.S. Rep

BANGOR, May 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A pro-life university professor has been banned from a Catholic church for delivering an unannounced pro-life announcement. University of Maine Professor Terrance J. Hughes told LifeSite that the matter arose after he learned of a fundraising spaghetti dinner to be held at St. John's church in Bangor on May 24, which was to be hosted by pro-abortion U.S. Rep. John Baldacci.

Baldacci, who calls himself a Catholic, has a deplorable voting record on life issues and is known as an abortion activist. Baldacci has voted three times in favour of partial birth abortion. Moreover, Hughes told LifeSite that ten years ago he picketed a spaghetti dinner at a local public high school where Baldacci was raising funds for a local abortuary.

Hughes attempted to bring the matter to the attention of the parish priest and the local bishop but received no responses to his communications. Taking matters into his own hands, Hughes addressed parishioners on May 11 before a Mass letting them know Baldacci's record on abortion and displaying a sign depicting an aborted baby. Hughes was ordered out of the church by the parish priest Rev. Jerry Gosselin and left peacefully. After leaving the church following his presentation of only a few minutes, Hughes said Gosselin addressed him saying: "Wait till the university hears about this, you're finished."

Hughes addressed his concerns over the dinner and his treatment by Rev. Gosselin in a letter to his local bishop. He was later informed that he was issued an order barring him from the church for a year. Twelve pro-lifers demonstrated outside the church as Baldacci hosted his spaghetti dinner May 24. Hughes told LifeSite he informed the bishop that he and other pro-lifers have been showing the graphic abortion signs in various cities and towns, but not until now "in front of churches; maybe that's where we should have been from the beginning".
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/may/02052903.html