KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Jul. 24, 2014 NCR Today
KANSAS CITY, MO. A group seeking to deliver a petition to Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn on behalf of a fired gay foot pantry coordinator met resistance Wednesday afternoon as they attempted to enter the downtown chancery offices.
A group of about 30 people carried a copy of an online petition with more than 32,000 signatures asking that Finn apologize to Colleen Simon — a woman dismissed from her parish position after her same-sex marriage was inadvertently made public by a local newspaper — and to give her job back.
The group made their way into the first set of doors at the chancery before two security guards for the building blocked them from entering farther.
According to Georgia Walker, organizer of the Faithful America petition, the group prayed and sang in the lobby as they waited for a representative from the diocese to receive the petition. After calling several offices, she said a summer intern came to collect the petition. Walker said in an email to NCR that as she left police arrived, reportedly at the diocese’s request, to break up an “unauthorized protest.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.