Supporters of high-profile abortion-rights opponent Randall Terry have chosen today, Good Friday, to demonstrate in Fort Wayne against President Obama’s May commencement address at the University of Notre Dame.

Organizer Joseph Landry, a coordinator for Stop Obama Notre Dame, said protesters will don Obama masks and smear fake blood on their hands to represent lives expected to be lost to abortion under Obama’s policies.

But Vince LaBarbera, spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, said Thursday the protest is poorly timed and he hopes Catholics do not attend the event, scheduled for 10 a.m. in front of the Allen County Courthouse.

LaBarbera found out about the protest when asked about it Thursday by a reporter.

"It seems like a poor time to do something," he said. "It’s not about Obama or Notre Dame right now. It’s about Good Friday and the crucifixion of our Lord."

He said Bishop John M. D’Arcy, who leads the diocese, would not comment on the demonstration. it.

Last month, D’Arcy said Obama’s actions on embryonic stem cell research and abortion fly in the face of Catholic teachings and that he could not attend the commencement in good conscience. He cited a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops policy that Catholic institutions should not give honors to those who "act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" lest the institutions suggest support for such actions.

LaBarbera said he did not know of any Catholics who were attending. "And I would hope they would not," he added. "It’s a sacred time."

Cathie Humbarger, executive director of Allen County Right to Life, said that organization is not involved in the protest, although it had been contacted through an e-mailed press release and a phone call seeking a suitable location.

Asked whether the protest’s tactics were appropriate, she said: "I’m not involved in planning it, and I don’t know the organizers…. I don’t want to comment on an event sponsored by somebody else."

Right to Life board member, the Rev. Steve Jones of Fort Wayne, said he did not know any local participants.

"My viewpoint on the Notre Dame matter is that the bishop let his viewpoint be known and he did it in a mature and classy way," he said. "I appreciate his stand and his high integrity and the way he made his stand."

Terry is best known for founding Operation Rescue, a group opposed to abortion rights that attempted to bar entrance by women to abortion clinics in the 1980s and 1990s.

A convert to Roman Catholicism in 2005, Terry jumped into the Notre Dame fray earlier this month by posting a "resignation letter" for the Rev. John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame president, based on the Obama commencement invitation.

Stop Obama Notre Dame seeks to have the appearance canceled and Jenkins removed. The group has established an office in South Bend, and Terry has moved his family there, according to media accounts. Jenkins has said the selection of Obama does not mean everyone is in agreement with all of his positions.

Stop Obama Notre Dame is circulating an online petition that is different from one posted last moth by the Catholic Cardinal Newman Society seeking to have the invitation rescinded. The Cardinal Newman Society petition contained more than 266,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon. In addition, a student group conducted an anti-Obama vigil Sunday on campus.

Landry, 27, said he is a Catholic from Montana and travels around the country as a "pro-life missionary" for Stop Obama Notre Dame.

He said anywhere from two to 50 people might attend the Fort Wayne protest, but he did not know how many would be local.

He said Fort Wayne was chosen because Notre Dame is within the diocese. A similar protest with about 25 people took place at the university Thursday.