THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501070257
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
The leader of Boston's Roman Catholics asked abortion opponents to attend prayer vigils at five designated churches instead of demonstrating outside clinics.
Cardinal Bernard F. Law made the appeal in Friday's issue of The Pilot, the newspaper of the nearly two million-member Archdiocese of Boston, a week after two receptionists were shot to death at two clinics in suburban Brookline.
Law called for a halt to clinic demonstrations to avoid ``anything which might engender anger or some other form of violence.''
He said he will designate churches for anti-abortion prayer vigils.
William Cotter, a local leader of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said he disagreed with the idea but asked his followers to comply for now.
Violence is ``a turning-away from God and a turning from our neighbor,'' Law wrote.
Quoting from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, he said: ``Never avenge yourself. . . . Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.''
John C. Salvi III, 22, of Hampton, N.H., was flown to Massachusetts from Norfolk, Va., Thursday to answer charges in the shootings.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION CLINIC SHOOTINGS ABORTION ANTI-ABORTION PRO-LIFE
PRO-CHOICE CATHOLIC by CNB