Update on the "Protest" Vigil of the COURAGE Conference

I arrived in the vicinity of St Francis Xavier Church at St Louis University about 5:15pm. As I drove past the church on Grand Avenue, I passed those at the "vigil" who were just opposite the church in the same spot where we had a prayer vigil protesting the V-Monolgues. I estimated about 30 people gathered about the area.


I made a left hand turn when the light changed, found a spot a half block away, parked the truck, loaded a camera with film (I had forgotten my digital camera this morning), and walked down to the front of the church.

As mentioned in the "Catholic" Action Network Press Release, Archbishop Burke was to celebrate the conference's opening Mass.

I opted to skip Mass since I was so late (20 minutes by now) and would observe the "vigil" outside for a while. Right away I noticed 3 plains-clothes police officers (all holding walkie-talkies). As I past the front of the church walking south on Grand I took a couple of pictures of the gathering across the street. I proceeded toward one of the officers who was positioned past the church and asked him if he was a cop. We exchanged pleasantries and I told him I was there to take a few pics and see what groups were there. I explained to him who the primary group was and mentioned that the vigil was planned to last until 7:00 pm - he wasn't happy about that...

The officer confided that the scheduled Mass had been changed about an hour or so before. I was told that it was moved to St Raymond's Maronite Cathedral. The group of protesters, concerned that they were not seeing anyone arrive for Mass, were informed that the Mass had been moved but were not told where. It must have been quite disappointing since CAN's Press Release stated, in part:

The vigil is timed to coincide with the Conference’s opening Mass, and hundreds of vigil participants are expected.

And at no time during my time there did I see "hundreds"...In fact, my estimate is that there were, perhaps, 50 at most.


Since my pictures (if they develop OK) won't be posted until tomorrow or tomorrow night, I'll relate some of the signs people were carrying. There were five discernable groups represented (based on signs and/or shirts):
CAN - "Catholic" Action Network,
"Holy" Families,
Dignity.
PFLAG, and
Catholics for Queers.

Some of the signs (most were hand-made) stated such things as:
"Homophobia IS the mental illness, not homosexuality."
"We believe in love and committment."
"Love needs no cure."
"Love makes holy families."

After 6:00pm, seeing no increase in the number of protesters, I decided to leave and took some pictures as I left.

As an aside, the police officer with whom I talked earlier told me that Fr Mhanna (who was with Fr. Biondi in Lebanon) had arrived back in St. Louis yesterday. I have not yet confirmed this, but I hope it is true. He did state that he was not Catholic and I told him, "Well, you could be!"

Anyway, if the pictures turn out OK, I'll post them tomorrow.

*********** UPDATED *******

A couple of pictures added from a nearly disposable 35mm camera...Here is a link to more pictures.