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Cumberland Catholics reject Unborn Monument

On October 2 the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization will unveil a monument in Davis Memorial Cemetery to commemorate the over 40 million unborn children killed by abortion since 1973.

The monument is being installed in this Methodist cemetery after Cumberland’s three Catholic parishes refused to allow it in their respective cemeteries.

The decade-long battle to find a home for the monument has left the cemetery organization’s co-founder and president, Edward Taylor, Jr., bloody but unbowed.

Said Taylor, a life-long Catholic, “The issue still remains:  why are the Catholic churches so against this monument?”

Taylor’s wife Kelly, who is president of Allegany County, Md., Right to Life, is equally puzzled:  “Are they not pro-life?  Are they not here to serve God?  It doesn’t make sense!”

The Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization (CHCO), founded in 1983, offers tours of the area’s historic gravesites, restores historic grave monuments and erects new monuments, all without using taxpayer money.

CHCO members, both Catholic and Protestant, also pray the Rosary for the Souls in Purgatory every first Saturday.

In 1993 CHCO began a fund to build a large monument for the unborn killed by abortion.

“I’ve always been pro-life,” said Taylor.  “On all our monuments we tell the story of the person who died.  I wanted to tell the story of the unborn killed by abortion.”

The following year, Taylor asked Fr. Vance Pastorius, then-pastor of Cumberland’s SS. Peter and Paul Church, for permission to erect a monument to the unborn at the parish’s cemetery.  Although Ed was a member of St. Patrick’s Church, he selected SS. Peter and Paul because it was the most well-known and prominent of the town’s Catholic cemeteries.

Although Father Pastorius was “very pro-life,” said Taylor, “He said, ‘I need to think about it.’  He took two years.”

Around 1995, Pastorius refused permission for the monument.  “He told me that people would perceive that I was taking away his power.”

The following year, a major fracas developed over the parish’s plans to tear down a 19th-century monastery on SS. Peter and Paul property.

Although Taylor felt it would be sad to see the historic structure go, he did not actively oppose its demolition--but CHCO Vice-President Melvin Collins, a well-known historical preservationist, did.

After the monastery was torn down, Pastorius, irked by Collins’ opposition, sent CHCO a letter barring any CHCO activities in the cemetery.

But efforts to smooth ruffled feathers eventually succeeded.  In January 2000, Father Pastorius was the speaker at a CHCO-sponsored pro-life rally in downtown Cumberland, and he again allowed CHCO activities at the cemetery.

In the meantime, in the summer of 1999, Taylor had approached Msgr. Thomas Bevan, pastor of St. Patrick’s Church, about putting the monument in that parish’s cemetery.

CHCO had become affiliated with St. Patrick’s Cemetery in 1988, according to Taylor.  The organization conducted an historic tour of the cemetery every St. Patrick’s Day.  In 1991 CHCO spent over $4,000 restoring the cemetery’s monuments.

Ed’s family had been members of St. Patrick’s for over 100 years.  Monsignor Bevan had married Ed and Kelly and had baptized two of their three sons.

But when Taylor asked for permission for the monument, Bevan balked.

On January 31, 2001, Monsignor Bevan sent a letter formally refusing permission to erect the monument at St. Patrick’s.

The letter cited liability insurance concerns and stated that there was no place in the cemetery for the proposed monument.

Monsignor Bevan reiterated these objections in a phone interview with Defend Life.  

“Our cemetery is 142 years old; every inch is accounted for,” he said.  

After he had refused CHCO permission for the monument, all the Catholic parishes met and agreed together that there was no space for the monument, he said.

“We have to deal with licensed tombstone dealers; they have liability insurance,” he added.

Taylor didn’t buy any of it.

“We always have a professional bonded and licensed monument company to install or restore monuments,” he pointed out.

The allegation that there is no space for a monument at St. Patrick’s Cemetery is “so untrue,” he said.

“Keep in mind we’re only talking about 3 square feet—half the size required for a grave site.  There are plenty of places at St. Patrick’s for the monument.”

People are still being buried at St. Patrick’s—maybe 10 burials a year, he said.

And CHCO member Mary Miltenberger had offered to have the monument placed on the Coffey family lot, which she owns, said Taylor.

After Monsignor Bevan’s refusal, said Ed, “We left St. Patrick’s--my own family and my parents--after five generations.”

The Taylors now attend St. Anthony Catholic Church in nearby Ridgely, West Virginia.

In May of 2001, Ed and another CHCO member met with Fr. Milton Hipsley, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, and Rita Davis, St. Mary’s Pastoral Council president, and once again requested a site for a monument to the unborn.

They talked for an hour.  Taylor reminded Hipsley and Davis that CHCO would be paying for the monument; it wouldn’t cost them a cent.

“But they threw up roadblock after roadblock,” he recalled.

Finally, Father Hipsley asked Taylor to make a presentation at the May 22 Parish Council meeting.

But before the meeting occurred, Ed received a letter from John Barron, Jr., St. Mary’s parish administrator, rescinding the invitation to make the presentation.

“At this time we find very little, if any mandate at all, towards a project of this kind that would use St. Mary’s Cemetery as a host for this monument,” Barron wrote.

CHCO’s offer to build a monument for the unborn had now been turned down by all three of Cumberland’s Catholic churches.

In late May 2003, Ed received a letter from Archdiocesan attorneys, asking that CHCO remove from its website (www.chco-online.org) its “improper claim of affiliation” with St. Patrick and SS. Peter and Paul cemeteries, “which we did,” said Taylor.

CHCO “never has been affiliated to this parish,” Bevan said in the phone interview; Taylor “has been claiming that, but it isn’t true.”

        One of CHCO’s main fundraising sources is the selling of grave monuments.  The June 15, 2003, St. Patrick’s Church bulletin contained a notice that the church would permit monuments to be repaired or placed  in St. Patrick’s Cemetery only “by a licensed monument dealer, and never through a historic cemetery organization.

        “No organization has the right to contract with any of the ‘lot holders’ of our parish cemetery for work to be done.  Work may only be contracted directly with a licensed reputable monument dealer,” the notice concluded.  

“We are considering legal action against Monsignor Bevan concerning his interference with our monument sales,” said Ed.

All of these actions against CHCO originate from the controversy over the monument, he maintained.

Nevertheless, the Taylors are looking forward to the unveiling of the monument at the Methodist cemetery.

“Rev. Dan Wright [pastor of Davis Memorial Methodist Church] is very pro-life,” says Ed.

Everyone is welcome to attend the unveiling ceremony on October 2 at 2:00 p.m.  Davis Memorial Cemetery is located on Uhl Highway, just off Route 51, south of Cumberland.