A Catholic priest allegedly crashed a car into the garage behind a Rockford abortion clinic Saturday and wielded a pickax to enter the main building before its owner fired two warning shots with a 12-gauge shotgun to stop him, authorities said.
Rev. John P. Earl, pastor at St. Patrick Church in Rochelle, did not reach the clinic, which was closed, and nobody was injured, said Rockford Deputy Police Chief Dominic Iasparro.
Earl, 32, who lives at the church, was charged with burglary and felony criminal damage to property, police said. He was released from the Winnebago County Jail Saturday afternoon on $10,000 bail, a jail official said.
Saturday’s break-in at the Northern Illinois Women’s Center at 1400 Broadway in Rockford came on the heels of Thursday’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the controversial abortion pill known as RU-486.
The abortion issue in recent years has been an emotionally charged one, and clinics have been the targets of anti-abortion protests, vandalism and even violence. In 1998, a New York doctor who performed abortions and had been the target of anti-abortion activists was shot and killed by a sniper.
Dr. Richard Ragsdale, who runs the Rockford clinic, said protesters have regularly gathered outside the building in recent months.
“It’s a very hard coincidence, but it could be just a coincidence,” said Ragsdale, who in 1990 won a five-year legal challenge against state abortion regulations that he said were so stringent they would have shut down his and other clinics.
Iasparro declined to comment on motives for Earl’s alleged actions.
Ragsdale said Earl had been observed near the clinic on videotape taken by surveillance cameras earlier in the week.
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There was no videotape of Saturday’s incident, he said, apparently because the trespasser knocked out the clinic’s cameras with bricks.
Police said Earl drove his four-door blue Saturn through the garage door about 8 a.m. He then was able to get inside the three-story brick building that houses the clinic by chopping through wooden doors with a pickax, police said.
Gerald “Wayne” Webster, the building’s owner, was inside at the time. He heard the disturbance, he said, and called police.
When authorities arrived at the scene and Webster tried to let them in, he said, he discovered Earl standing behind him with the ax. Webster said he fired two warning shots into the air with a 12-gauge shotgun.
The spray from the shotgun hit a wall, said Iasparro, adding that Webster owns the weapon legally and was not arrested.
Police reported $2,000 to $3,000 in damage to the building. The clinic is scheduled to be open as usual Monday.
At Earl’s parish, a 5 p.m. mass was said without him Saturday and another priest from Rockford presided over the services.
That priest, who declined to give his name, provided a statement by the Diocese of Rockford that said, “It has never been nor is it the policy or practice of the Roman Catholic Church to condone, approve or promote violence in any form to achieve a desired end.
“Violence does harm to the church and to the Respect Life Movement. We ask for prayers for an end to violence in all its forms and for Father Earl.”
The statement, which was read to parishioners at the 5 p.m. mass, also said Bishop Thomas Doran has “restricted Father Earl’s activities in accordance with church law” while the matter is being reviewed. The statement did not elaborate.
John Stover, 63, a parishioner from Ashton who attended the 5 p.m. mass, described Earl as a “nice young man” who has become popular at the church since coming to the parish about a year ago after a longtime priest died.
“This is not something you would think he would do,” Stover said. “Wherever he went in the parish, he generated goodwill.”
Elisa Williams, 22, an elementary school teacher who lives across the street from the clinic building, said she frequently sees protesters in front of the building and awoke to police sirens Saturday.
“I do not support abortion–I’m Christian,” Williams said. “But I do not support what happened here.”
Some residents do support Earl, however.
Frank Giammarese, owner of Franky’s restaurant in Rockford, said he is starting a defense fund for Earl. On Sunday, Giammarese said, he plans to join about 2,000 anti-abortion supporters outside Holy Family Church in Rockford, where they will form a human chain in the shape of a cross.
“Violence isn’t the answer,” Giammarese said. “But we do understand his passion.”