Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is urging his followers nationwide to distribute pamphlets attacking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by placing them on vehicles parked at Catholic churches this weekend, including in the Toledo area.
"We have them all over the country, but we are targeting the swing states specifically," Mr. Terry said from Washington.
He said lots of brochures will be distributed in northwest Ohio, but he didn't know how many or who would pass them out. "The basic message [of the pamphlets] is that a Christian cannot in good conscience vote for Obama because he supports killing children," Mr. Terry said.
The brochures are downloadable from Mr. Terry's Web site, www.randallterry.com, and he directs participants to not ask permission, wear comfortable clothing and running shoes, and to start placing the brochures in vehicle door jambs 20 minutes after Mass begins.
The Rev. Michael Billian, the Toledo diocese's episcopal vicar and moderator of the curia, alerted pastors and church leaders in an e-mail to be aware of Mr. Terry's plan.
Distributing partisan political materials on church property is prohibited, Father Billian said in the memo.He said that "a particularly troubling aspect" of Mr. Terry's plan is that one of the brochures uses a logo that closely mimics the one on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' official document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship."
"This could easily mislead people into believing that the materials are authentic church documents," Father Billian said.
Sally Oberski, director of communications for the 19-county diocese, said there are no plans to beef up security at parishes, but the diocese wanted pastors to be aware of the pamphlet plan.
"Father Billian just wanted to let them know this was happening. … We're just going to follow our diocesan policy regarding the property lines … and hope there are no incidents," she said.
Mr. Terry, who founded but is no longer affiliated with Operation Rescue, said that although the Catholic Church has been strongly pro-life, "there are a lot of Catholic dissenters right now who are trying to deceive other Catholics into voting for Obama."
He called the pamphlet plan "a really intense grass-roots effort" and that some people are prepared to be arrested rather than stop distributing the literature.
"We don't want to, but we will. We've been arrested three times this year," Mr. Terry said. "The absurdity is that we're upholding church teaching and they arrest us."
Mr. Terry said he was busy yesterday organizing protests outside 21 Obama campaign headquarters nationwide.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com
or 419-724-6154.
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