Activists Stage Noisy but Peaceful Protest at N.Y. Cathedral
About 350 AIDS and abortion-rights activists raised a ruckus across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday while a few sat quietly inside. It was a far cry from the pandemonium a year ago that resulted in 113 arrests.
On Dec. 10, 1989, approximately 4,500 protesters gathered to dispute the church’s teachings. Some were arrested for chanting, lying down and chaining themselves to pews during the service.
This time, four people were arrested--six blocks from the cathedral--when they sat briefly in the street on 5th Avenue, blocking traffic.
Preparing for the anniversary, the Archdiocese of New York got a court order Friday to keep protesters from disrupting services.
About 450 police officers were deployed. The church was closed after the Mass began.
Some 25 members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT-UP, and Women’s Health Action and Mobilization, known as WHAM!, walked out of the cathedral during Cardinal John J. O’Connor’s homily, but services were not disrupted, police said.
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