Published: May 14, 2009 01:45 pm      

Students plan ‘peaceful’ protest to Obama

SOUTH BEND — University of Notre Dame students who plan to protest the school’s awarding of an honorary degree to President Barack Obama on campus during commencement Sunday are calling for a peaceful, prayerful approach.

“We believe a lot more can be accomplished through prayerful, respectful witness than can be accomplished in angry protest,” said Michele Sagala, a graduating senior and member of ND Response, a coalition of student groups who oppose the school’s decision to award an honorary degree to Obama because of his support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

Not all those who plan to be on campus Sunday, though, intend to honor the request by ND Response that they refrain from using graphic images and signs. Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who already faces a trespassing charge after being arrested on campus May 1 while pushing a stroller containing a doll covered in fake blood, said members of his group, The Society for Truth and Justice, plan to be arrested and to carry graphic signs.

“If Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks had played by the rules that these kids are proposing, Barack Obama would still be on the back of the bus,” he said.

ND Response has received permission from the university to hold a protest on the west end of the South Quad. It will start with an all-night prayer vigil starting Saturday night at the Alumni Hall Chapel and will include a Mass at 11:15 a.m. Sunday, a rally at 12:30 p.m. and another prayer vigil at 2 p.m. for students choosing not to attend the commencement.