Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Father Weslin

Father Norm Weslin is the "star" of a video showing an elderly priest, among others, being cuffed and hauled away by the police for "trespassing" at Notre Dame, when prayers were being said against the private murder of the unborn and against governmental promotion of that murder.

He has led quite an interesting life.

In several articles in the NY Times, dating from a decade and more ago, efforts are made to suggest guilt by association with violent members of the anti-abortion movement.
Much is made of a relationship, through Lambs of Christ which Weslin founded, with James Charles Kopp, and Weslin's attempts to block access to abortion mills are, dishonestly it seems to me, characterized as trying "tried physically to restrain patients trying to enter clinics." (If this were an accurate characterization surely some of the priest's dozens of arrests would be for assault, rather than for blocking access, and trespass.)

A bias in reporting would be an interesting subject to pursue, vis a vis coverage of civil disobedience and/or violence in support of a cause the Times espouses.

But I digress.

What interested me was another instance in which Fr. Weslin's name comes up upon googling it.
In Michael Rose's Goodbye, Good Men we learn this, about the former paratrooper's seminary days:
I formed a rosary group, which met daily in my room for evening rosary. The authorities told me to stop. I asked why. They answered that the floor may cave in. It was a sturdy new building so I seriously doubted their explanation.

Incidentally, I am concerned about what seems to be misinformation in the blogosphere.
(Gambling at Ricks!)
Some are saying that the 80 year-old's arms were broken by police at Notre Dame, but that seems to have happened in a much earlier arrest at a "clinic" protesting the private murder of the unborn.

No comments: