News From the Front

More than a thousand marched before the St. Paul abortion mill on Good Friday. The Federal Court ruled against Planned Parenthood who attempted to restrict the number and location of the Pro-Life demonstrators. Pioneer Press
KARE11

Tens of abortion supporters counter-marched further down the street, waving their bloody pink placards.

Fine weather brought out a large turnout to Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility on in St. Paul. The all-day prayer vigil organized by Pro-Life Action Ministries has been a Good Friday occurrence for many years. Catholic priests, the Franciscan Brothers of Peace and Protestant ministers made their regular appearances, leading the faithful in song, prayer and disciplined meditative walking in front of the building in keeping with Federal, state and local laws.

At any one time, it appeared that several hundred pro-lifers were present, men, women and children, requiring that the sidewalks on both sides of Ford Parkway be utilized. Fifteen or 20 of St. Paul’s finest were present to keep order. Most of their duties involved stopping traffic to allow marchers to move from one side of the street to the other. Over the 9-hour duration of the event, an estimated 1,500 Pro-Life demonstrators were present.

In addition to their much smaller number of marchers, a number of PP “Escorts” were on hand in case a potential customer arrived. PP management served coffee and plain clothes photographers were on the roof with cameras, no doubt hoping to document a violation of their property rights by one of the orderly marchers.

An out-of-shape marcher with arthritic knees debated whether he would take a turn at carrying the demonstration’s cross for a time and decided against it. A Roman Legionnaire in the uniform of a protestant minister, however, thrust the tail of the cross into his hands and suggested that he assist the man carrying the cross in the demonstration. He did it and he was glad that he did it. That cross, though large was constructed of 1” thick wood and was quite light.

--

You think it might not have been that difficult 2,000 years ago to carry a real cross capable of bearing the weight of a man. Later on Friday, at the St. Paul Cathedral, a nearly full Church was present for a solemn Good Friday service with the Archbishop. The cross that was part of the service was perhaps 12 feet tall, made of 3 x 10 or 3 x 12 planks and a 2 x 8 cross piece, proportionally in width. When erect, it did look as if a human body could have been nailed to it.

It took six people to carry that cross.