Religious Leaders Arrested in Civil Disobedience

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Religious Leaders Arrested in Civil Disobedience
 
By Elaine Russell, Rochester Indymedia
 

 
(March 5, 2003) Thirteen prominent religious leaders were arrested inside the Federal Building after holding an Ash Wednesday service calling for Repentance.
 

 
Speaking for the faith leaders Harry Murray told the gathering of over 100:
 
“We feel called to act in the spirit of our faith tradition today. We use ashes as a symbol of repentance, as a symbol of our own mortality, and as a symbol of the death and destruction caused by war. We burn money into ashes both to remind ourselves that the value of money fades to insignificance when compared to Gospel values of truth, love, and nonviolence, and to symbolize the fact that, in the course of this war, billions of dollars will literally “go up in smoke” while basic needs of education, shelter, and health care go unmet both in our country and around the globe. We enter the federal building to pray for repentance by our nation because this building holds the offices of our local Congressional representatives.”
 

 
8:30 am – Clergy holds traditional Ash Wednesday service. (Indymedia, Channel 10 and Democrat and Chronicle, present)
 

 
9:07 am – Faith leaders burn dollar bills in a coffee can and apply the ashes to their faces. “I burn this bill as a symbol of my repentance for war mongering capitalism.
 

 
9:21 am – Thirteen pacifists enter the Federal Building
 

 
9:26 am – Police officers arrive
 

 
9:50 am – News 8 arrives
 

 
10:04 am – Six cop cars line up in front of Federal building. Eight police officers and four building security guards converge on sidewalk with handcuffs ready. One calls for paddy wagon.
 

 
10:06 am – Police Technician van arrives.
 

 
10:13 am – Paddy wagon arrives. Rain starts. Fourteen cops and guards advance to Federal Building.
 

 
10:20 am – Two more cop cars arrive.
 

 
10:22 am – RNews arrives.
 

 
10:23 am – Harry Murray is the first to be arrested and led out of the building. He is followed by 11 more people of faith, arrested for trespassing. Supporters line the walkway cheering for those arrested, holding protest signs and singing folk songs.
 

 
11:06 am - Channel 13, presently owned by Clear Channel, arrives as Sister Grace from the House of Mercy is the last to be led off in handcuffs.
 

 
11:11 am - Ken Maher, an organizer present to observe the arrest process, announces that the arrests were over and the arrested pacifists were being taken to the Public Safety Building and then released on their own recognizance. They would be arraigned in City Court the following day.
 

 
In other news today Pope John Paul II called upon the world community of Catholics to oppose the impending U.S.-led war against Iraq.