Arrest on Good Friday for Praying
with Sign on the Steps of the Church
Did you wonder why on the day we remember Jesus Christ dying for us is called ‘Good Friday’. When I was in Guatemala I discovered it was the major holiday of the year for the country and was celebrated in grand fashion. You can find some of this on my pictorial essay Buried in Guatemala.
Today a group of us held on weekly hour of prayer in Lent outside of Gesu, the Jesuit Catholic Church on the Marquette University Campus. Our message was the same: Marquette Be Faithful to the Gospel, No Longer Host Departments of Military Science which is called ROTC. While we were all were outside of the Church when people were coming in for a Good Friday service at noon all when was okay. When two went on the stair going up to the Church the atmosphere was changed. First the usher than the security of Marquette University and finally the police were demanding that we leave, since praying on the stairs was okay but not with the signs with our message and pictures of the war.
When elderly lady walked into the church door and saw all the security surrounded the two persons praying with signs she asked “isn’t there a service here today.” She was insured there was and the security was just there for the two praying.
One of the two continued to stay on the stairs after the services in the Church started and police came. With approval of the Jesuit pastor of the parish, he was arrested. Although he was silently present praying, with the sign, he was arrested for ‘criminal trespass’ and taken away in handcuffs.
After four years of praying with banners and signs on Marquette University property it is ironic the first arrest was on Good Friday. Maybe it is called Good Friday, because this was the day Jesus was arrested, tried and convicted of treason. His crime was speaking the message of truth to power. In some little way we, followers of Jesus, were trying to do the same thing on Good Friday.
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