PENNSYLVANIA: Catholic Church Uses Obama Target In Carnival Game

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church and a local Pennsylvania amusement company are being investigated by the Secret Service after they created a likeness of the president to use as a shooting target in a carnival midway game.

The game's target is a painting of a black man in a suit who is holding a scroll labeled "Health Bill." He sports a belt buckle fashioned after the presidential seal, antennae and a troll doll on his shoulder. Players paid $1 per shot, or $5 for six shots, to fire foam darts at targets on his head and heart. Those who hit their mark won a stuffed animal. Cindy Wofford, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia office of the Secret Service, said her agents are looking into the game and will determine if there were any direct or indirect threats to the president. They will share their findings with the U.S. attorney's office. "We take these kinds of things very seriously," Wofford said. [snip]

The Rev. Jim Prior of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a parish of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown, was not available for comment, according to a woman who answered the phone Wednesday at the church. Matt Kerr, spokesman for the diocese, said Prior would have pulled the game if he'd known it was there. But Kathryn Chapman of Medford, Mass., said her family told the church about the game. She visited the fair July 24 as part of her family's reunion, which has been held in Roseto for decades to celebrate the family's roots in the borough, named after Roseto Valfortore of Italy. She said her brother, Bob, noticed the game the night before and told her she had to see it. When she visited the next day with her 14-year-old son, she said, she was flabbergasted. "I couldn't believe they would have a game where you could shoot any president, George W. Bush or President Obama, and that there were targets on his forehead and heart, and that you would win a prize for shooting the target," Chapman said. "You got a stuffed animal for becoming a sniper," she said.

The stunned fair-goer quoted above says she complained to the carnival's operators and was told, "We don't care what you think." The game has since been taken down now that the Secret Service is involved.