More Arrests at Notre Dame, including Pro-life Priest, as Commencement Approaches

Dr. Alan Keyes and Fr. Norman Weslin the Founder of Lambs for Christ were among those arrested. No bail has been set.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - Former Ambassador and Presidential Candidate Alan Keyes and Father Norman Weslin, found of the Pro-Life group Lambs of Christ walked on the campus of Notre Dame University on Friday with approximately fifteen others to pray the Rosary and witness to their opposition to the appearance of President Barack Obama at Sunday's commencement. Two hundred yards later they were stopped by police, arrested and taken away in handcuffs.

The actions of the Notre Dame police were taped and re-broadcast on the Internet just after the event took place.

Those arrested were part of a larger gathering of almost 50 people that met off campus. Police had already informed the group that they would be arrested if they stepped foot on Notre Dame property. Following talks by Randall Terry and others, the crowd prayed the Rosary, Then the smaller group walked on campus carrying a banner as they continued reciting the Rosary.

The group walked up the driveway on campus, while police, along with a group of reporters, photographers and videographers, waited for them with a van just a few hundred yards away. Dr. Keyes was one of the first arrested after one of the officers demanded they leave campus.

The encounter became more intense when police began to remove Father Norman Weslin, a former Army Colonel who became a priest after his wife died in a tragic automobile accident. In his 80's, Fr. Weslin is a familiar figure in the work of Pro-Life through Lambs of Christ.

The elderly priest was singing when he was handcuffed and taken to the ground and carried off on a stretcher.

This week probably marks the first time in the history of the University when individuals have been arrested on campus for exercising their Catholic convictions and praying a prayer that has been recited in their chapel millions of times since its founding in 1842.

As of this writing, police have refused to set bail for any of those arrested.

According to reports from Randall Terry, an organizer of the one of the groups that wants to stop President Obama from speaking at Notre Dame, Norma McCorvey, who was the "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade, will be at Notre Dame on Saturday. According to his statement, she is coming to pray and risk arrest with others on another planned walk through campus.

McCorvey became a Christian in 1995 and came into the Catholic Church in 1998. She has been an outspoken proponent of the Pro-Life message since her conversion.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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