Group Plans Anaheim Picket of Catholic Teachers’ Meeting

A group of Catholics calling themselves “orthodox” plan to picket a conference of religious educators beginning today at the Anaheim Convention Center.

It is the second year protesters have contended that the conference agenda features speakers, including former nuns and priests, who veer from the Vatican on such issues as homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.

“The Catholic Church is under great attack from within,” said Kenneth Fisher, chairman of the Coalition of Concerned American Roman Catholics, which he said consists of about 200 members belonging to smaller organizations scattered throughout Southern California.

Fisher, who lives in Anaheim, said he expects 15 to 30 coalition members to stand outside the convention center during the three-day Religious Education Conference to pray and pass out flyers urging those attending to “challenge” the purported doctrinal errors.

He said other coalition members will infiltrate the conference, which is sponsored by the Los Angeles archdiocese and is expected to attract 20,000 religion teachers, many of them lay volunteers.

Father Gregory Coiro, director of public affairs for the archdiocese, said all the speakers will espouse views reflecting “mainstream” Catholicism.

Coiro said this year’s speakers were screened closely after the archdiocese was embarrassed to discover that one of the main speakers invited to the 1994 conference was Daniel Maguire, a former priest who is an abortion rights activist.