By Kathleen Gilbert
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, May 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Alan Keyes and 21 pro-lifers were arrested yesterday after they walked onto Notre Dame’s campus praying the rosary and pushing baby strollers carrying baby dolls covered in “stage blood” to protest the invitation of Notre Dame to President Obama to deliver the commencement address at this year’s graduation.
According to videos posted by protest leader Randall Terry, the University administration had served Keyes and his group a trespass notice just prior to the incident.
Repeated calls to the University of Notre Dame made by LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) for comment were not returned as of press time.
Dr. Keyes, who has been released from jail, says will be leading peaceful witnesses again on campus this coming Tuesday and Friday.
“I went on campus to bear witness to the truth that the invitation by the University of Notre Dame to Barack Obama is a travesty and abomination against the truth that is characteristic to our Catholic and Christian faith,” Dr. Keyes said upon his release. “Obama’s actions deserve condemnation, not honor.”
“I am going back on campus to prayerfully bear witness. Come, join me, let us trespass together so that in our trespasses we might find ourselves fully in obedience to the will of God.”
Keyes and other pro-lifers had been arrested in a similar demonstration last Thursday, in an effort originally spearheaded by activist Randall Terry.
Popular pro-life activist and author Jill Stanek called it “ironic” that “a Catholic university arresting peaceful pro-life protesters while paying for extra security to honor the most pro-abortion president in history.” The University has announced plans to pay some of the cost for local police to provide additional security during Obama’s visit on Sunday, over and above the services required by the Secret Service.
However, Stanek also said that she found it difficult to endorse the group’s protesting style.
“While I disagree with Randall Terry and Dr. Keyes’ 1980s style of protesting, I think just about any action pro-lifers take, aside from violence, of course, adds to the social tension,” Stanek told LSN today.