Their signs decried the "Soviet-style land grab" and had a warning for Chief Minister Andrew Barr: "Jesus Heals, Barr Steals".
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The group of protesters recited the Rosary outside the Legislative Assembly and called on the ACT government to stop its takeover of Calvary, while debate began in the territory's parliament on laws to allow the compulsory acquisition.
The Assembly is expected to vote on and pass the bill about 5pm on Wednesday.
About 50 protesters gathered around the entrance to the Assembly on Wednesday morning, reciting prayers, and chanting "Save Calvary". They were gone by noon.
The Australian Christian Lobby's national director for politics, Wendy Francis, said people in the ACT were outraged by the government's decision to take over the Catholic-run Calvary hospital.
"The main problem is the way that it is so undemocratic," Ms Francis told The Canberra Times.
"They've been planning this, obviously, for months. They've been paying people for months. When people are on waiting lists at their hospital, they've been paying people to work out how they can take over Calvary."
Ms Francis, who is based in Queensland, said there was a plethora of reasons protesters had attended. These included concern that faith-based schools could be taken over.
"I can tell you that a lot of the crowd here today are not religious people," Ms Francis said.
"They're just people that have been treated at Calvary hospital and they see this as completely undemocratic. But the concern is if the government can do this to the Calvary hospital, then who's next?"
The ACT government has said it has no plans to forcibly acquire faith-based schools or other religious facilities. The Chief Minister has previously said the Calvary acquisition had nothing to do with religion.
Ms Francis said the government should allow a parliamentary inquiry process to consider the takeover of Calvary hospital. The inquiry process has been circumvented by special legislation.
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John-Paul Romano, operating under the banner of Catholic Action, addressed the crowd with a loudspeaker, telling protesters they needed to vote to protect religious freedoms because the ACT government would not.
"This is an attack on faith. Not just on Christian people; all people. Let's not get that wrong. This government does not want any faith in this city at all. First it'll be the hospital, next it'll be schools. ... We need to be strong, we need to stand up," Mr Romano, a member of the Canberra and Goulburn Catholic archdiocesan finance council, said.
Meanwhile, Meg Clark and Anne-Maree Delahunt staged a two-person counterprotest, holding signs thanking God for Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith and declaring "Catholics have no right to decide our health".
Ms Delahunt, speaking to journalists over the chants of the main protest, said the pair wanted to be at the front of the Assembly to make it "very clear that there are Canberrans who are delighted the ACT government has taken this great decision".
Ms Clark said: "We decided that the decision was very important and when we realised that the Calvary people were doing a protest, we wanted to come and make sure people knew that there's more than one opinion on this.
"And we're northsiders and we'll be very, very happy when there's a public hospital run by public health."
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