Pilsen Celebrates its 31st Annual Good Friday’s Via Crucis!
Despite weather conditions hundreds attended Pilsen's Via Crucis
A chilly and snowy Good Friday marked the 31st anniversary of Pilsen’s Via Crucis on Friday, March 21st. Parishioners, community leaders and neighbors gathered in Pilsen to experience this unique event: a live reenactment of the Stations of the Cross (the last moments before Christ’s Crucifixion), and also to reflect on the pressing issues that our community is currently facing. From Christ’s Last Supper to the final moments leading to his Crucifixion, every station was performed as the public advanced along 18th Street, from Providence of God parish to Harrison Park (18 Street & Damen Avenue), finally heading into St. Adalbert Church where Cardinal Francis George led a prayer service.
Christ's pain and suffering was compared to the pain and suffering of families separated due to immigrations raids.
Pilsen’s Via Crucis, created in 1977 after the 1976 Christmas Eve fire in which two mothers and their 10 children perished, held its first procession to protest unsafe housing conditions, connecting the loss of the people who perished with the death of Jesus. Since then, eight of Pilsen’s parishes have been coordinating this successful annual event in which each of the participating churches is responsible for casting specific roles. Providence of God, for example, offers people to play Peter, Judas and Pontius Pilate, Holy Trinity picked Veronica, and St. Paul selected Mary Magdalene. Ultimately, a lottery is conducted to see which parish has the honor of casting the most sought-after roles of Jesus and Mary.
This event has become a significant tradition in which people draw parallels between the Jesus’s suffering during the Stations of the Cross and the current state of affairs of the many families that live in the community and surrounding neighborhoods. As this year’s theme was “Lord, We are your Country, Sanctuary for Immigrants”, its reenactment presented a Jesus pains mirroring the pain of hundreds of broken families separated by our country’s lack of comprehensive immigration reform.
For nearly 18 years, The Resurrection Project has been a proud partner in advocacy for safe and affordable housing, as well as for social justice for all immigrants.