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OUTER COVE, Newfoundland, August 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Amid complaints and national media coverage, the mayor of a small town outside St. John’s, Newfoundland is defending the city council’s decision to approve a monument to the unborn erected earlier this summer.

The monument, erected outside St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Outer Cove by the Knights of Columbus, includes a plaque indicating that it is “dedicated to all miscarried, aborted, and stillborn children.”

“We celebrate the life of unborn children who are and will ever be persons all,” it adds.

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After sparking two letters of complaint to the town council by residents objecting to a pro-life message being displayed on the town’s main road, the monument made news in the local paper and was then picked up nationally this week by CBC.

But John Kennedy, the mayor of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, told LifeSiteNews Thursday that the council is standing by its decision despite the minor controversy.

“[The monument] met all of our development guidelines,” he explained. “We informed these people that our piece in this business was done because our only concern was whether or not an application meets our development regulations.”

In her letter to town council, Carmen MacKenzie asks the town council to have the monument moved further back on the parish grounds away from the road.

“Aside from the obvious esthetics, I find the content of this monument to be very inappropriate,” she wrote. “Each person is entitled to their personal opinion on the controversial subject of abortion, but the general public should not have the opinion of a particular group on view whenever they travel through their community.”

But Kennedy says objections should be taken up with the parish or the Knights of Columbus.

“We’re not intending to do anything with it. As far as we’re concerned, our work in this matter is over,” he said.

Rev. Fred Brown, St. Francis of Assisi’s parish priest, did not respond to LifeSiteNews.com by press time.

Contact Information:

City Council of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: 726-2178
Mail:  744 Logy Bay Rd, Logy Bay, NL, A1K 3B5

St. Francis of Assisi Parish
Phone: (709) 437-5777
Fax: (709) 437-1883
Mail: 49 Outer Cove Rd., Outer Cove,  NL, A1K 4E7

Knights of Columbus General Contact