Parishioners ignore Bangor abortion protest

BANGOR – Used to bloody images greeting them on the sidewalk, parishioners at St. John’s Catholic Church on Sunday morning simply ignored the graphic photographs of aborted fetuses that local pro-life activist Terence Hughes has displayed in recent weeks.

Most walked past Hughes with their heads turned away. Some children held tight to a parent with one hand while shielding their eyes with the other hand.

Tuesday, a Bangor court will consider whether to grant the church a protection from harassment order against Hughes and his fellow protesters on the grounds that Hughes’ photographs frighten children who are too young to understand the abortion debate.

Richard Glencross, a Bangor father, told his two young children to look away as they left mass Sunday morning.

Trying to explain to a 5-year-old why someone is at the church holding pictures of a dead baby is difficult for parents, he said.

“Harming young children by subjecting them to these photographs just isn’t necessary,” Glencross said. “Everyone has a right to their opinions, but they should do this somewhere else.”

Hughes responded that his “witness” forces parents to talk to their children about the church’s views on abortion.

The official Vatican stance is that the Catholic Church opposes all forms of abortion.

The activist has targeted St. John’s because it is the home parish of U.S. Rep. and Gov.-elect John Baldacci, a pro-choice Democrat.

In May, the church hosted a spaghetti supper that Hughes called a fund-raiser for Baldacci but the church said was “not a political event.”

At the time, Hughes entered St. John’s before Mass with his signs to protest Baldacci’s record and was banned from the church.

Now Hughes has pledged to stand outside the church every Sabbath morning until Maine’s bishop directs the state’s churches not to make their facilities available, for any purpose, to a political candidate who is not pro-life.

“It kind of looks like a spaghetti dinner, doesn’t it?” Hughes said, referring to an unrecognizable photograph of what is purported to be a fetus following a suction abortion.

Hughes, a lifelong Catholic, said he was frustrated with many Catholics’ stances on abortion. He compared Baldacci to Herod and Hitler.

“He’s slaughtering the innocents,” Hughes said.

Baldacci could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Baldacci was not present at Mass this week, but his fellow parishioners expressed a wide range of opinions on Hughes’ weekly appearance and the church’s response.

John Martin of Palmyra confronted Hughes as he entered the 11 a.m. service Sunday, angrily asking why the activist wasn’t out protesting the church that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who is also a pro-choice Catholic, attends.

“They’re phonies,” Martin said. “It infuriates me because this is, in my mind, political.”

Others supported Hughes’ right to protest, even at a church, as long as he doesn’t interfere with the worship service.

“It probably makes us all a little uncomfortable, but it ought to,” said Mike Trainor of Veazie.

Hughes’ attacks against Baldacci drew less support from parishioners.

“You don’t shut someone out because they’re doing something the church doesn’t agree with,” said Don Krause of Levant. “The church is about forgiveness.”