Ex-Catholics Conference Is Protested

About 50 Catholic demonstrators picketed outside a Protestant church here Saturday evening to protest what they described as an anti-Catholic conference inside.

The confrontation was peaceful, and no arrests were reported at Grace Community Church, 13248 W. Roscoe Blvd., where a two-day conference of Ex-Catholics for Christ was scheduled to end today. But the rhetoric between the opposing Christian groups was anything but mild as Bible-carrying adherents squared off in curbside theological debates.

“You just totally messed up the Bible,” Harout Kouyoumdjian, 19, an Arleta Protestant, told Michael Murphy, 26, a Catholic from Huntington Beach who was trying to explain Communion rites.

“Catholics do not believe in the Bible. Catholicism is not bringing people to truth,” said Kouyoumdjian, a Grace Community Church member and conference participant.

“That’s not true,” Murphy replied. “We just have a teaching authority.”

The purpose of the Ex-Catholics conference is to encourage Roman Catholics to renounce their church and to lead them into the Protestant fold, according to attendees. Inside the church, several hundred people listened to the testimonials of former Catholic priests, nuns and laymen.

Outside, Murphy and other protesters spoke against what they called misrepresentations of their faith.

“We’re here to witness for our church,” said protest organizer Jim Graves, 32, of Irvine. “They are inaccurately representing our creed. This is a mild protest of the inaccurate information they are offering about the Catholic Church.

” . . . I want them to get out of their canned speech and really come out and talk to us.”