Yesterday was the annual Good Friday Way of the Cross march through midtown Manhattan, sponsored by Pax Christi–a leading group in the Catholic peace movement. The several hundred who participated–including myself–walked from 47th and 2nd to Times Square, stopping at fifteen symbolically-significant places along the way to reflect on the suffering and injustices going on in the world today. We prayed for victims of our indifference to the Darfur genocide across from the Nigerian Consulate, those without access to affordable health care and medications in front of the Pfizer building, the homeless outside Grand Central Station, and the working poor in front of banks. We also prayed for an end to global exploitation by greedy corporations, our contribution to global warming, and–most dramatically, as it was in the middle of Times Square–military recruitment and the death penalty.

If you’re wondering what all this has to do with Good Friday or are hesitant to find approval with a faith-based protest, consider that the final suffering hours of Jesus before his execution by the state was a public event and that most of us in this country are sheltered from the suffering of others. Even on this holy day, most Christians retreat to their churches and private thoughts to recall the suffering of one man, when such suffering is going on outside their very door. Yesterday’s march was an opportunity to not only bring awareness to such suffering, but to force passersby to confront it–if only for a second. It was a fulfillment hearing our voices echo through the canyons of commerce and watching the expression of tourists being caught off-guard or those lunching in overpriced corporate venues like Bubba Gump Shrimp Company break from their food to observe our disturbance. In realizing that the tranquility of peace can overcome the most chaotic and sensory overloaded spot on Earth, I remain hopeful that the world is not deaf to our cries for change.

Check out the link to my Flickr page for more photos from the march.