The London diocese will be participating in Saturday's Walk for Jesus despite recent media reports claiming the walk's co-organizer is anti-Muslim.

At 9 a.m. Bishop Ronald Fabbro will give the opening blessing and prayer to an expected 5,000 people before the 1.7-km journey across Dundas Street to Victoria Park where Prayer Fest — a mixture of guest speakers, live music and symbolic ceremonies — will be held.

But the diocese first reconsidered its participation after the media storm in the southwestern Ontario city caused some headaches for the diocese. Media reports framed G.J. Rancourt, who is co-organizing the Walk for Jesus and is director of Prayer Fest, as anti-Muslim for comments he made in 2010 when he was a candidate for the Christian Heritage Party. Rancourt said the quotes that caused the controversy were strategically selected to "sell papers" and characterized him unjustly. He said he spoke out against sharia law, and not Muslims.

"We were seeking to get some clarification on what our involvement was ... and whether or not it would be something that the bishop would continue to do," said Mark Adkinson, spokesperson for the London diocese. "The bishop is just doing the opening prayer at the Walk for Jesus. That's basically the extent of the bishop's involvement and the diocese's involvement."

The diocese became involved with this year's walk after a parishioner, who helped organize the event last year, mentioned his role to his priest. Word then travelled up through the ranks eventually catching Fabbro's interest. The bishop agreed to open the Walk for Jesus but didn't commit to Prayer Fest because it had no Catholic-specific link.

Although separate events, the similarities between them, primarily the theme of unifying Christian faiths by praising Jesus, and their close proximity helped develop the perception that the two were one and the same.

"At that point there wasn't a clear distinction between the two events," said Adkinson, explaining why the diocese originally reconsidered its participation.

Concerns arose early in the week when a local paper published old quotes from Rancourt.

Rancourt said people may be confused over his comments because he didn't draw the distinction between Islam and sharia clearly.

"I'm not beating up on Muslims because to beat up on Muslims wouldn't be fair," said Rancourt. It is sharia law that he thinks shouldn't be allowed in Canada, not Muslims. "Let's not confuse Muslims with sharia because there are Muslims that don't practise sharia."

Rancourt says the practise of sharia law — a moral code and religious law of Islam — is a massive human rights violation, contradictory to Canada's Christian principle-based laws and a lifestyle unwelcome in this nation. He said 170 million people, mostly Hindus and Christians, have been killed around the world because of sharia law.

But at the end of the day Rancourt said his 2010 comments should have nothing to do with Prayer Fest or the Walk for Jesus.

Call it what you want, a misunderstanding, misrepresentation or innocent ignorance, London's bishop didn't want the Church to suffer a black eye, Adkinson said.

"The bishop was taking the reports quite seriously and felt that he had to come out and clarify what his involvement was and also put out a public statement just to be clear on what he was going to be and what he was going to emphasizing this weekend," said Adkinson.