Pax Christi is the Catholic peace organization and this was their 43rd annual Good Friday Stations of the Cross, across Manhattan. Starts near the UN and crosses 42nd St to Holy Cross Church between 8th and 9th Avenue. Since the early nineties Brigid and I have done the stations most years, with a handful missed for cancer and other heavy stuff.
When we started attending there was usually a crowd of 600-700, heavy police presence, and sometimes some local media television coverage.
Here’s the accompanying truck where each station is spoken from, with some reflections on a theme, and music. The lady in red at the back is the director of CCD at a Westchester parish.
In recent years – even before COVID – the numbers have been way down – under 200 this year. Little police presence and no media. This is Times Square, looking straight up 7th Avenue.
Here is a station being done by students from Regis HS. Their theme was religious discrimination and they did a good job.
I like doing the Pax Christi stations – it’s an opportunity to publicly display, with some fervor, religious conviction to thousands – maybe 10 or 20 thousand – at least fleetingly. The event takes over three hours. Faith in the public square. The participants now are either young and often from Catholic high schools, or not young and lots of white hair. Middle aged people or people with children, not so much. Many of the people we met in the 90’s, like the Jesuit priests Ned Murphy and Dan Berrigan, have gone on to their reward.
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